tv hole problem: solved! kind of...?

When we David finished the bonus room, he moved the nice tv from the living room to the new room. It is now where we do about 100% of our tv watching which is nice because it is isolated. When the tv was downstairs, it seemed to always be on... and I hated that! You can see here how our living room has a tv nook above the fireplace. Ugh! Why this has become a trend is beyond me. It is not the least bit practical in most situations. My Birmingham house had the same situation, and it just made the room impossible (and resulted in rewiring the entire room to make a better arrangement!).

So, when the tv hole was vacated by the big tv, we rearranged the rest of our tvs in the house. We had tvs in both guest rooms and we quickly got rid of them. Sorry guests! We put this little tv in the nook (to get it out of another room), but it obviously is ridiculous looking:

not to mention all the clutter on the mantle... yikes...

Since this whole change took place, I've been disgusted by it. We've talked about all kinds of different methods of covering it up (cabinet doors, plants, filling in the hole, etc.), but my dad made a suggestion recently that got me thinking.

And then, PW (well, Hyacinth) inspired me with this project, and I ran with it.

I bought a piece of styrofoam board (cut to the right size by the helpful guy at Lowes because I asked nicely), and I already had muslin and burlap. PS- I'm obsessed with burlap right now. David has asked me to not put it in any more rooms of our house.

Oh yeah, new burlap curtains:

I wasn't sure about them (and David seriously had his doubts), but I kind of like the earthy, natural texture it brings to the room. Ha. I don't really know what I'm talking about at all (I'm a terrible decorator, remember?), but at least the windows aren't naked anymore.

Back to the project...

First I covered the styrofoam board in the muslin because I knew the blue would show through the burlap and I did NOT want that.

Then, the burlap.

Then, I knew it needed something else... but I didn't know what. I am NO artist, so I figured I was in dangerous territory. Now, my dad or brother? They would be fine, excellent even, at a project like this. Unfortunately they live in Georgia, leaving me on my own.

Since I figured my artistic abilities were limited, I went with stripes. 

and brown paint.

And here is it:

I figured if I don't like it a) I can take it down and throw it away since the whole thing only cost about $6 or b) I can recover the board with something more... put together. Also, it's nice that the tv is still back there and we didn't have to find a new home for it (because that would mean another room with a tv staring you in the face). 

We're still pretty undecided. What do you think?