The two years I lived by myself when I first moved to LA felt empty for many reasons, but the one void I didn't mind was the absence a TV and its related question of 'How the heck am I going to decorate around this eyesore?" However I've since acquired a gentleman friend. And as wiser women than I have said, "Love your partner, love his NBA play-off games." So the big-screen monstrosity in my (ahem, our) living room is here for the long haul.
Right now the TV sits by itself against an otherwise blank expanse of white wall. The austerity of the setup is shrine-like, the television a jealous and territorial minor deity demanding that we worship no others before it. I'm desperate to add some art to the scene but am wary of striking the opposite effect—that of crazy-quilt gallery wall attempt to disguise the TV—which really only highlights the appliance further in a game of "Which of these things is not like the others?"
I scoured the Internet for successful examples of how to hang art around a TV, and amongst the few I found the trick seems to be to acknowledge the screen's existence before moving the eye to bigger, better things. And I do mean bigger in a literal way, because a few large frames proportional to the TV itself go much farther in creating sophisticated scene than tons of tiny ones.
As for what fills those frames, think clean and striking. Black and white photos, vintage maps, and graphic prints fit the bill nicely. The above photo is probably my favorite of all the images I found. The bold simplicity of both the arrangement and the art selection says, "Yup. We've got a TV. It's pretty huge. Now get over it." In other words, it makes appliance acceptance feel entirely possible. At least until next year's basketball finals, that is.