Hidden Screen, Projector Preserve Historic Appeal
By Steven Castle
This early 1900s home in Asheville, N.C., takes advantage of the CE pro's design-savvy solutions to hide technology.

Just because you have a historic home doesn’t mean you can’t have modern-day conveniences, such as a nice home entertainment system. Take this Asheville, NC, house, built in the early 1900s and designed by Richard Sharp Smith, one of the architects of the famous Biltmore estate.

This house is considerably more homey than the Vanderbilt digs, and this family room is a pleasant place to sit for a conversation or to read a book. But to use it as a full-blown home theater system? That required some creativity.



The first challenge confronting electronics installation company Harmony Interiors of Asheville, NC, was locating the right spot for a video screen and seating. With bay windows on one side and an open area on the other, the only logical place for a screen was in front of a window on another wall.

Harmony built a soffit to hide a pull-down 92-inch Draper screen, and constructed a false beam to hide the Sony LCD projector. That would preserve the room’s timeless, period look. After all, says Harmony’s Scott Varn, “When you’re dealing with a house that is truly historic, the last thing you want to see is the technology.”

However, placing speakers and wiring everything together through old-time plaster-and-lath walls was another challenge altogether. Harmony decided on tiny cube-like Bose speakers that could mount to the walls and be painted to match, thereby making them as inconspicuous as possible. An equipment rack would go in a closet in an adjoining space, in back of the left wall of the family room.

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