Best Buy has all sorts of Kitchen appliances, from major appliances to small toasters, blenders, and coffee makers. But a couple of “appliances” I would also suggest for your kitchen is a TV and sound system. The kitchen is probably the one room that you spend the most waking hours in. It is the room that everyone congregates in at social gatherings, so why not have some entertainment in it? The cook doesn’t want to miss the action in the big hockey or football game, nor should they since having to cook is already punishment enough. Here are some suggestions on solving the entertainment system for the kitchen, since it is probably a trickier room to equip.
Kitchen TV Entertainment
The trick with putting the TV in your kitchen is finding the right “location.” You need to find the best spot among all the appliances and cupboards, which is either very easy because there is only one or two spots that will accommodate a TV, or difficult because there is no logical spot. The thing that will make it much easier is hanging it on an articulating wall mount. It not only requires less wall space to do so, but the articulation gives you a lot more flexibility so the TV could be viewable from different spots in the kitchen, depending on what you are doing.
Once location is determined, size should be the next decision. Bigger is always better depending on what will fit in the space, except if the location puts you too close to the TV. If the TV ends up close to where you will be, use the formulae in Christine’s postthat shows you how to calculate the best size based on viewing distance. I wouldn’t get anything less than 32” TV and try to get in the 40’s or more – you won’t regret it.
Figuring out which features are important in the kitchen is easy. Safe to say 3D is not one of them, as you don’t want to be preparing food with 3D glasses on. I would say the one feature to seriously consider is it being a Smart TV. This will give you a lot of flexibility to look at Pinterest or surf the web for fantastic recipes, and a lot of recipes have YouTube videos that make it even easier. You can also watch your favourite Netflix shows, listen to music through the system, etc. All great for the kitchen.
I think a few great TVs for the kitchen are the Samsung 40” 1080p LED Smart TV (UN40EH5300FXZC), the Sony 40” 1080p LED Smart TV (KDL40W600B), and the LG 42” 1080p LED Smart TV (42LB5800). They are all smart TVs with great pictures, decent sound, and reasonably priced. You can also get these models in different sizes depending on what works best for you.
Kitchen Sound Entertainment
The sound from your TV may be good for watching programs, but not that great for listening to music, and it is always nice to have music in the kitchen. There are a number ways to get quality sound into the kitchen.
The first one I will recommend is simply adding some stereo speakers to your TV. See my previous post for more details. It would be simple to wall mount or under cabinet mount some active speakers that are connected to the TV. Another awesome solution is to put some speakers in the ceiling. This will be quite a bit more work to set up, as it needs an amp to drive the speakers and the wiring in the ceiling but once done will be really attractive and can sound fantastic.
A really simple solution that will sound fantastic is using a portable system that is Internet enabled, and will play music from your Smartphone, tablet, or computer. A couple of excellent choices are the Bose SoundTouch 20 WiFi Music System, and the Polk Audio Woodbourne Wireless Speaker (AM6119-A). I like both of these because their sound is excellent, they can stream directly from the Internet, they are portable so you can move them around the house, they are wireless, and can play from your mobile devices.
If you are looking for a more economical sound solution, there a lot of great options like the Sonos Play 1, or the Sony Bluetooth / NFC Speaker (SRSBTX300B), or the Bose SoundDock Series II Digital Music System. These are all solid portable systems that have very good sound in a small package.
Don’t deprive the room where you spend a tremendous amount of time, your kitchen, of a great audio/visual system. A nice TV and good sound system doesn’t have to break the bank and will be so appreciated you will wonder how you ever did without it!
