i get asked all the time either about if i think our frame tv is worth it, OR “what is that tv that looks like art?!” i’ve had a samsung frame tv now for years and i can safely say i think it’s worth the extra money. i’ll explain why in this post!
to start, i wanted to show you a before and after with what a regular tv looked like in our bedroom versus now. obviously the biggest difference is that a regular tv is just a big black rectangle on your wall, so just visually it’s a very different look!! so basically, if you are a visual person who obsesses about things looking good (like me), this tv is life changing (lol yes thats a dramatic way to put it but i stand by it).
the tv comes with a “no gap wall mount”, this means it can get completely flat against the wall without any gap whatsoever. this is a big part of why it looks so good and so much like art, because even the thin modern tvs aren’t flush against the wall like that. the frame itself TRULY looks like art on the wall.
the tv comes with a thin black frame, but you can customize your TV with a bezel. the magnetic bezels come in beige (now called teak), brown, white and black (the black is thicker than the one that it comes with). they’re an extra $100-$200 depending on the size of the tv but i think they’re definitely worth it. there are third party shops that sell frames as well, but they don’t seem much cheaper or as modern. the third party ones have more antique type frames than these ones. ALSO, since i originally wrote this post, i do know that you have to now make sure your bezel fits your frame tv because the newer bezels only are compatible with the newer frame models!
don’t expect it to fool everyone who walks into your house, it looks like art compared to a TV, but it still is a screen and isn’t the exact same as a real piece of art. i will say, i’ve had some people come into the house who did mistake it for art! and in photos, people ask what the “art” is all the time.
i think the most important thing is not that it would disguise as real art, but that it just looks so much better than a regular TV. the screen is definitely low gloss compared to other TVs, so it has a nice art-like matte finish.
we have a hole in our wall behind the TV where the cords are fed through and come out below. we had these holes in the walls when we bought the house so i can’t really advise and it’s definitely something a professional should do– but this is similar to the part we have.
the TV comes with a “one connect box” which is how it’s powered and how you connect your cable box, apple tv, video games etc. you can hide the box inside any cabinet below your TV for a super streamlined look. also, the frame is a smart TV so it comes with netflix, hulu, etc.
the remote for the box runs on radio frequency so you can keep it hidden and not have to worry about opening the door or having it straight ahead of you or anything like that. also helpful if you don’t have a cabinet and have to concoct an alternate solution for hiding the box.
and if you’re not able to hide the cords inside your wall, you can also use things like this cable hider. but i don’t think you would even necessarily need it because it has one single clear cable that you barely see.
you plug everything right into the one connect box! rokus, apple tvs, video games– everything plugs in there. super easy!
so from what i’ve googled, art mode is designed to consume the least possible power as the photos will display for a long period of time. and the energy consumption in art mode is only 30% of the energy used in regular TV mode.
the sensor detects when theres no activity in the room and then shuts off. you can set the sensitivity so it turns back on easier when you enter the room if you prefer that, you can also set a timer so it auto shuts off.
because that means it actually does spend most of the time off, it’s not too bad. and there is no chance of the image burning onto the screen or anything like that (i mean they designed it to display art so of course it doesn’t!)
actually yes, i would say it’s off more than it’s on. so even though it has a motion sensor, like when we come in in the morning it usually doesn’t turn itself on, i have to manually turn on art mode.
i did a big roundup of lots of sources for beautiful and inexpensive digital art you can download and upload to your tv– you can see that here!
there’s also an art subscription service in the samsung store, where you’re able to download art and they have tons of pretty options, but it’s either $6/month or $25 per art piece, so i usually buy art on etsy because they’re usually priced around $5, which is nice because it’s low commitment so you can swap out the art often.
you download this samsung app called smart things and inside the app you can control all of the art. you sync your tv with the app and once they’re connected its easy– but i’ve had A LOT of issues with the connection. sometimes it takes me forever to pair them, but that might just be mine or my wifi. would love to hear if others have the same issue.
since i have so many photos in my camera roll, it takes a long time to load the photos to upload, so what i did was create an album called “frame tv art” and whenever i have art to upload i add it to that album. in the app, i just open that album and it takes a lot less time to load.
and again, since i wrote this post, the app has gotten EVEN worse. for halloween i wanted to upload new art and i spent like literally 3 hours trying to make it work. eventually i used my husbands phone which has way less photos on it and that eventually worked.
i’ve also heard that if you load the photos onto a thumb drive, and then plug the thumb drive directly into the one connect box, that may work!!!
if you want to upload your own photos, you just have to use a mat. they have an option for one, two or three photos. it can be very fun for holidays like i do every christmas with arlos santa photos. (fyi this is my older frame tv below, the first gen (yes the one arlo broke) which def had worst screen quality than our new one).
technically you can. if you found art on google or pinterest and you wanted to use it on your tv, you could– it’s just a question of how good it would look. if the image size is small, it obviously might look blurrier.
also if the image isn’t perfectly sized to the tv dimensions, then it automatically adds a mat, so if you wanted to have no mat, you’d have to size it yourself. for reference, the size is 3840 x 2160 pixels. i don’t actually think the mat looks bad, i think it just depends on the art.
with in the art mode on the app, you can control how the art looks. you can adjust the brightness (it usually looks a little better darker) and adjust the warmth (i lean towards more warm than cool). you’re able to play around a bit with the settings to figure out how it looks the best.
yes! the remote is very pretty. and ours can control our apple tv as well. the one issue i have, not so much with the remote, but it’s related, is that when you turn on the tv, it has a menu pop up on the bottom of the screen promoting it’s apps and movie rentals — the pop up takes FOREVER to go away on it’s own– like literally feels like 2 minutes or something, so its an extra step when you turn the tv on.
in the art mode settings you can modify the mat. you can display the art with no mat like mine are above, or you can adjust the mat. they have a thicker and thinner mat option, and you can change the color of the mat as well.
yes! the frame is a smart TV so it comes with netflix, hulu, etc. all the apps so that you could theoretically not have to use any additional equipment.
in our bedroom we have the 49″ and in our living room we have the 65″. if it were up to me i would probably have gone smaller with both but gid is only into giant TVs lol.
this is tricky! for our living room, we went lower because our couch is low– when you are deciding your height it’s best to sit wherever you’ll be sitting to watch and really decide what feels most comfortable. i don’t really want to be looking up or down, i would prefer to keep my head tilted straight so that helped our decision.
now for our bedroom, i ended up going too high because our living room was so low and i didn’t like it. it looked too high hahah. so i had the guy come and put it 5 inches lower and now the height looks much better to me. this is all just a matter of opinion!!
yes, i would always advise to hire a professional to install unless you have experience. for the price you’re paying for the TV itself you’re gonna make sure you hang it properly.
i still think yes. my friend brittni has hers sitting on a cabinet and it still looks great. no matter WHAT, i always think it looks better than a regular tv.
i asked gid for this question because he knows better than me. he says “the picture isn’t 10/10 but i’ve been really happy with the quality of the 4k picture for gaming and what not. we don’t watch a lot of 4k movies though.” also we don’t watch sports, so i don’t really know how football shows up on here but while it might not be the best 4k tv there is, i think it’s a pretty good compromise.
they definitely go on sale, but they aren’t ever super cheap it seems like. we got both of ours on sale, but they were only a few hundred dollars off. i’ve checked closely around typical sale holidays and when they release new models, but as of now they don’t ever seem to be more discounted than that.
our 65″ was $400 off when we bought it, and our 49″ was $200 off (now it’s 50″) the prices they’re at now. so that is still suppper pricey compared to how much high quality TVs sell for now.
there are also cheaper models (older, without 4k, etc) where it seems like you can save some money. if you look on ebay you can most likely find a good price!!
i have seen them hung above fireplaces often, so i think it’s probably safe as long as it’s a certain distance above the heat and depending on how hot the surface of the outside gets? but i am not an expert on this!
hopefully my next house has a fireplace and i can update this post!
again i asked gid for this one: “you get an 8/10 huge tv AND a happy wife, or you get to keep dreaming about a man cave you’ll never actually build. or you can try to spend 3k on another tv and somehow not fight about that”
i strongly believe it is! it’s not functionally the best TV you can get, and it’s one of the most expensive, but it’s definitely the best looking TV there is. so if aesthetics matter to you, then i think it’s absolutely worth the extra cost!!
ok i think that’s it!! i hope i answered everything but let me know in the comments if you have any other questions!
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Custom framing is so darn expensive. Even if you layer promotions and coupons and holiday sales, a small custom framing job can still run hundreds of dollars. There are certainly items that are worth that money to have an impeccable framing job done (e.g., degrees, special awards, artwork). But what about items that are special and you want to look really nice (like your recent family portrait or say, your new awkwardly shaped art from Minted), and you just can’t fathom shelling out hundreds of dollars for something that might not be on your wall forever? Well – I have an answer! There is actually a really easy ways to make your artwork look custom for a fraction of the cost. Let me share this budget framing trick with you!
Here is a situation I find myself in all the time, and maybe you do too? I have a dozens of empty picture frames (from all the various walls in all our various homes). And then a new piece of art comes along, and none of the frames I have work. Usually, the frame size isn’t quite right for the art or the scale doesn’t match the variety of mats I have on hand.
Take for example this cute little print I got from Minted (Flamingo, no longer available) for my entryway gallery wall. I loved everything about the design and the colors…and honestly, I also liked that the square shape contrasted with all the rectangle pieces already on my wall.
Even though Minted offers custom picture frames and mats with their artwork, I couldn’t justify the heavy added cost with all the frames I already own. Plus, I wouldn’t have been able to specify my preferred frame size to fit my gallery wall arrangement. But the selection of square frames is limited in most stores, and an 8″ square mat is not something you can (typically) find off a shelf.
In this situation, you might assume custom framing is your only option…
Take a look at any professionally framed piece in your home. More often than not, the element that makes them look stylish and custom is usually…the mat!
By using a mat to perfectly border the outer dimension of your artwork or photograph (no matter what kind of frame it’s in), you instantly give it style, class, and an elevated look. So…if you want your framing job to look custom, give it a custom mat!
Okay…so how do you get a custom mat for your artwork? Especially when your piece might be a unique size or shape?
Did you know that you can get a mat cut…in any size and layout, from any of the matboard options…at Michaels? (And probably other framing stores like JoAnn Fabrics and Hobby Lobby….but I haven’t checked their options personally.)
Yep! Just the mat. No frame. And they can probably do it while you wait, depending on how busy they are and if they have your preferred mat in stock.
By having professionals cut just the mat, you can use any off-the-shelf frame you can find (or already have) and end up with a pretty custom budget framing job for a fraction of the cost.
NOTE: I should note that this hack works best for pieces that will comfortably fit into standard-size frames without looking super awkward. If you have a really obscure piece, you might not be able to fit it into a standard frame…no matter what mat you use. In this case, custom framing might, in fact, be your only option.
After experimenting with my existing frames and gallery wall arrangement, I determined I needed a 7.5″ square cut out of an 11×14″ white mat board rectangle. That’s pretty specific and not something I could easily find pre-made. So I walked up to the custom framing counter at Michaels; and after a few minutes designing the mat on the computer and ensuring everything was just right, the sweet gal cut this mat for me while I waited.
NOTE: I did this in the pre-COVID era. You may now need to make an appointment.
Sure…I opted for the most budget-friendly white mat board they had available and skipped the double mats or decorative edging…but it cost me $13. Significantly less than a custom job would have been for (likely) the same finished look.
I came right home, popped the new mat and art into my old frame, and hung it right up!
A square piece in a rectangle frame is not the most common thing you can find, but it’s exactly what I needed for a very specific spot. I’m thrilled I didn’t have to pay a fortune AND it got one more thing out of the basement. Wins all around!
If heading out to the craft store for a specialty-cut mat isn’t quite necessary for your particular piece, here are some other budget-friendly matting options to try!
If you don’t need a custom frame mat and simply want to “dress up” your standard-size art, check Amazon for mats. In the search terms, be very specific about the total mat size AND the opening size you need, and there’s a good chance you will find some inexpensive options!
NOTE: Many mats are sold in bulk, so this is particularly useful when trying to create gallery frames.
You can actually order sheets of “uncut mat board” and a mat cutter and do it yourself! Although this will take some patience AND practice (HERE is a great tutorial to follow), this can really save you a lot of money if you have big or multiple pieces to frame.
Yep – I cut this one myself from solid white core mat board. Definitely not perfect but waaaay cheaper than a custom job for this inexpensive print!
If you want colored mats around your artwork, consider painting white ones! If you pair quality white mats with several coats of acrylic paint, you can create gorgeous colored mats without a custom order! (Learn more about using colored mats HERE.)
Finally, for a super cheap hack, thick cardstock or posterboard can both be made to look like mats inside your frames! And while you know the mats aren’t really made of mat board, most people won’t even notice. Case in point, I ran out of mats for my big gallery wall and used cardstock in one frame. Can you tell which one in the picture below?!? Didn’t think so 😉
Psssst – it’s the very upper left!
Take care to use a really sharp craft knife to get clean interior cuts, and consider using dimensionals between multiple mats for a more professional, layered look.
If you have some art you’ve been wanting to get on the walls but have been dreading the cost of framing, I hope these budget framing trick helps you out! Although most of my art projects are relatively small, you can actually use this same trick to save money on almost any frame job. Even if you have to purchase a new frame, combining an off-the-shelf frame with a custom-cut mat is still likely to save you hundreds of dollars for a very custom look!
See You Soon!
Megan
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