This post is sponsored by eBay
We've been long-time fans of eBay, even before they were sponsors of ours, so it was so fun to be asked to put together a curated landing page with our favorite finds and buys on eBay! You can check it out right here and we'll try to update it frequently.
Our latest buy? Our new 65" Samsung Frame TV! This is the third one we've bought (we bought a 43" for our last bedroom, a 55" for the cabin and a 65" for this bedroom) so it's safe to say, we like the Frame TV. I searched and searched for the best price and one day a 2019 version popped up on the Daily Deals page and we snagged one!
The frame TV comes in a few sizes, and they come with a really close-hanging wall mount that really helps the "This is a piece of art" feel. It's flush to the wall! It doesn't come with the magnetic frame though. So if you want something other than black (they have a light wood beige--the one we have, a white and a dark walnut), you'll have to order that separately. We got both the TV and frame for it on eBay for the best price I could find on the internet!
The frame just snaps right on. It's magnetic and easy to install. I'm not even sure you could call it installing. The TV on the other hand--to hang it with no wires showing might take an hour tops.
Our room was already outfitted with a recessed in-wall cable management system. They are pretty common, and make it easy to hang your tv, and feed the wire to the bottom of the wall and plug it in with no wires showing. But if you don't already have one, eBay sells a really great brand (this one) and install is as easy!
(Because our wall already had the system in place, we couldn't take photos of the process, but this is a straight forward tutorial!)
If you are unable to make holes in your wall or just aren't comfortable with it, the Frame TV only has one very thin, clear cord that you wouldn't really notice that much. It connects to a box and that's what you need to worry about disguising. We put ours in one of the dresser drawers. We drilled a small hole in back of the dresser and fed the cords inside.
The box sits in the drawer and is kind of the brain behind the TV. The remote works with radio frequency, so the box can be hidden completely and still work just fine.
We don't have have cable, but this is a smart TV and it's loaded! Hulu, Netflix, AmazonPrime, YouTubeTV and more.
You can even browse the internet on the TV! Perhaps what it's most famous for is the art selection. It has a ton of free art and you also get a trial subscription to their expansive for-purchase gallery for a limited time, too.
You can also, upload your own photos for display! I've used family photos or bought digital prints from places like Juniper Print Shop to display in the past and love the flexibility!
And with that, I have to ask--what are you watching these days? Chris and I love to wind out the days watching a show. We are currently catching up on the last season of The Good Place (oh how we love that show). But also, after years of our friends telling us we HAVE to watch Survivor, we finally caved and binged season 7, 10 and 13 and are currently watching 15--they were right! It's so addicting! Anything else we should add to the list?
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Love the frame TV. But i also love this dresser! Gorgeous! Can you please provide the source? Many thanks!
Great result, love the tip for the art gallery. TV sets do not have to be eyesores in this day and age, love what you guys have done with this one!
This is so cool! I want to do this in our bedroom, but I'm really sensitive to any light, when the rest of the room is dark. Are there any visible lights on this TV in the dark?
Not a one!
Where did you get this painting that you have on your Frame? I love it and would Love to put it on my frame. Thank you!
It was just in their art gallery options!
Hello!
I am planning on ordering a Frame TV through your link, but I just noticed that the Light Wood Magnetic frame you have linked goes to a tilt tv mount. Would you mind updating the link? Thank you.
Hi guys!
I just bought the 2019 55”!! Best Buy has their Black Friday and out and it’s down to $1,099!!!
Do you have the video saved somewhere, of Chris installing the bedroom tv?
Hi CLJ! We just purchased the 49" Frame TV to put over a long console table in our living room. We are having a hard time agreeing on how high to mount the TV - should it be mounted lower to be more eye level if you are sitting on the couch, or should it be mounted like a piece of art at eye level while standing? I am leaning towards putting it a bit higher, at eye level while standing, since we don't normally have the TV on. I know it's everyone's preference, but would love to know what you think!
Over a console table, I'd hang it no more than 10" from the surface.
These are actually on sale now through Best Buy! I picked up a 43" for our bedroom yesterday and have a 55" being delivered next week.
I was inspired by both Chris and Julia and Julia Engel to purchase this tv for our house!
We hung a 65" one above our fireplace and have really enjoyed it so far! We have not bought the bezel yet - Julia, how did you all choose between white and the light wood color? I am so torn on what to choose for our white walls.
Thanks for the tips and for featuring such a nice alternative to a big black eyesore!
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For anyone else considering buying a Samsung Frame:
-We love the look of ours during the day! It's set to a pretty dark setting and I rotate my favorites or a museum's art collection. It's a conversation piece when people come over. My family likes to change up the art and talk about what we like.
-It's so much more attractive than hanging a regular tv. It sits tightly against the wall and looks very clean.
-We paid a pro to hang ours. We found pros that had experience hanging these and paid them to do it since a TV had never been hung there, and ours is large!
-I didn't realize that the Samsung art store access is an additional $4.99/mo. There are some pre-sets included but I would prepare to pay a monthly fee for more expansive art options.
-We bought the 65" version from 2018 which have been marked down a little! 2018 ones look like they had some better reviews.
-The TV comes standard with a black, thin frame. You have to order/pay extra for a white or wood looking bezel. ( ~$200)
-If you are picky about matting for art and photos, you'll have to resize your photos that you upload to fit the screen perfectly. Our first task was to put up a great photo of our dog. Ha!
This TV has been on my wishlist since we recovered our fireplace and mounted our TV above it. I love how flat it sits against the wall! Can I ask what wall treatment you used in your bedroom? I love it!
We recently bought this TV to mount above the fireplace but the stud is 1.5” off center... any advice for how to mount on center? It appears you can’t slide through tv to be center with the type of mount for this tv. Appreciate your advice!
You should do a giveaway of a frame tv for us!!! ????????
Wouldn't that be nice!! We bought all three ourselves but if Samsung ever comes knocking you know I'll hit them up for a giveaway
The older model of this tv is quite a bit cheaper. Have you found any significant differences in the versions you have (assuming the first one you bought is an older model)? Thanks!
Considering hanging a Framed TV on my brick fireplace...the tv will not be flush because of the brick boarder on the fireplace. In your opinion will this takeaway from the look of the frame?
Oh my gosh, why is the magnetic frame over $200!? I was expecting $50 tops for that. That is totally outrageous...I'd love own this TV but can't forsee myself even being able to afford to :(
Thank you for reminding me about eBay, I never think to shop there for home furnishings. I checked out your list of your favorite finds and I was wondering how the sheets you linked to have held up? I was surprised to see how inexpensive they are.
How did you feed the cord inside the drawer.?There is a plastic connector that is quit large. In order to slip it in the drawer from the back, you would have to cut a pretty big hole.
We just had our frame TV installed yesterday, very much inspired by you guys! So far I am loving it. Do you use the smartview_frame app? Otherwise, how do you upload your family photos? I have not been able to connect my frame TV to the smart view app, I am troubleshooting it but wondering if you have any tips or tricks.
We have! Make sure your TV and your phone are connected to the same WIFI router. We have multiple in our house and once I got them on the same, it worked!
Thank you! I actually was downloading the wrong app, the smart things app worked perfectly!
Hey Julia, The Met has an open access art achive! You can get high res download of real works and upload them as your photos. I like 19th century etchings by J. M. W. Turner. The library of Congress photo archive also has great stuff! A lot of the “vintage” prints people sell on Etsy are just from there.
Thanks so much for this post! Just got our first tv and splurged on the QLED 49” Frame. I feel like I really need to study the manual. I bought some digital art from Juniper Print shop but I haven’t figured out how to get it to show without a mat. Same for any of the photos I uploaded. I cropped them to 9:16 aspect ratio. Does one have to buy art from the Samsung store to get it to be full screen like yours?
The Handmaid’s Tale- so good. Peaky Blinders and Downton Abby - all very entertaining:)
Love the frame! Shopping for one now...as for shows, watch Schitts Creek (netflix or PopTV)...sweetest, funniest show ever!! Seasons 1-5 are available now. Final season 6 premieres January 7th.
We have been watching Survivor since the very beginning! My brother and his wife finally caved after years of us recommending it to them and they loved it so much that they went back and watched EVERY SINGLE SEASON! I know that's a huge time investment, but I highly recommend it. There are some GREAT seasons out there with some classic contestants! Any season with Boston Rob is definitely a must see! We also started watching A Million Little Things last year and LOVE it.
Try watching the Great British Bake Off. So fun to watch them baking slightly different then in the US and they are not nearly as competitive!
We LOVE that show!!! Everyone is so kind to each other. Such a feel good one.
Yes!! The kindness!!! I love watching people genuinely love and root for each other!!!!
Would you share how you set the settings and which art looks most like art? We have one per your previous reco, but ours doesn’t looks like “real art” to me when it is off.
Darker art looks best I think!
The TV looks amazing! I love the art feature. As far as shows to watch . . . Outlander! You have to watch Outlander. There are two seasons on Netflix and my husband and I loved them so much we started paying for Starz to see the next two seasons. Once we were done with those, we started devouring the book series it is based on. We read books aloud to each other so that we can enjoy them together and discuss them. We haven't watched TV, as we normally do in the evenings to wind down, in months because we have been loving these books so much. We are almost done with book 6. I'm counting down until season 5 is released!
If you haven’t seen Breaking Bad, you’re missing an unbelievably well written, well crafted show. It is really THAT good. (I am seriously the last person you would expect to be raving about that genre.) Ozark is fairly well done but, not quite the quality of Breaking Bad. Love your posts and literally everything about your “brand”.
Someone please explain the appeal of having a TV in the bedroom. Isn’t your bedroom the calm refuge where you go to escape daily commotion, where you focus on each other and share? How do you relax? Arianna Huffington calls these distractions (TV, iPad, etc.) faulty “sleep hygiene.” Not trying to be critical, just curious how you decompress while it’s playing. Cheers!
We don't have a TV anywhere in our home right now. We will probably have 1 other in the basement for a theater setting. We don't focus on the TV throughout the day at all and don't even have cable. So, for us, the last hour of the day watching a show together is how we unwind the day. We are chatting as a family or couple throughout the rest of the day. Different strokes for different folks I guess.
The newest seasons of Survivor (from like 30 on) get soooo good! it's fun to watch all of them and see how the game changes.
I have started watching Survivor again because my brother was on last season! When you get to Season 38 you need to look out for my brother; Rick Devens!
how awesome!
No way! He was amazing! He made it such a great season to watch!! I loved him!
Rick Devens was hands down the best part of last season! Really hope he gets the opportunity to come back and play again. Julia - so glad you and a Chris have hopped on the Survivor train. Enjoy!
Devens was such a favorite for me! He’s awesome.
Survivor is probably my favorite show, you guys have a huge backlog but some seasons are definitely better than others so be picky!
Oh, and if you haven’t checked out diagnosis on Netflix yet, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND it.
Oh my gosh Katy! Your brother was my favourite contestant on the show last season! I was so disappointed he didn't win. That's so fun!
"Explained" on Netflix is a great docuseries/science show. The last season each episode was a completely different topic just 20 minute history/explanations. This season each episode is about The Mind which are all super fascinating. "Sneaky Pete" on Amazon. "The Boys" also on Amazon is great!
I have to say we just bought this tv and I am... learning to love it. We went from a 40inch Samsung (9 years old but no issues and still looked brand new)to the frame in 65inch and for what we paid (opposed to a normal big screen tv) it had to be perfect in my mind. One thing I expected was for the screen to be CRYSTAL clear and I was disappointed it wasn’t. After discussing with friends I got the recommendation to google “best frame tv setting” and by going with the recommendations re: brightness, movie mode, etc, this DRAMATICALLY improved. I think this tv doesn’t have a learning curve though. For example it has a microphone in the remote but for some reason I can’t use it for Netflix etc. Small things bother me like that but again, had huge expectations and think I need to spend more time learning about it. Did you have any issues you had to work through?
I appreciate the honest review! Very helpful :)
I’m obsessed with this tv! Thanks for sharing all the info on it. Can I ask about the beautiful moody ship at sea art? I want a print of it!
I’d love to hear any honest downsides to this tv. My biggest fear with this tv is that while it looks like legit art in photos, it just looks like a tv in real life. Like, do sun glares give it away instantly? Does it cast a blue glow when you see it from the side? Are all of these true but it’s still such a great tv that it’s worth the price?
You can adjust the brightness and warmth of the screen and I like to put in dimmer and warmer in art mode and it looks very convincing. Of course I know it's still a TV, but I've fooled a few friends already. I think the main benefit is that a TV turned off in a room is a black box--this turned off in a room still provides so much beauty with the art it displays.
Awesome, thank you!
When you showed this on your Instastory, it blew my mind! I didn't know I could adjust the brightness and saturation on my Frame, and taking down the brightness made a big difference in how authentic the art looks. I also think the paintings available in the shop look way more like realistic art than the photography art in the store. To me, the photos look like screensavers and take away from the art effect. I've even staying in the oil painting section of the store and I think those look really great on the TV, especially on a slightly lower brightness setting. I'm developing a solid library of "favorites" that I think look authentic so I can switch back and forth depending on the season, especially with autumn and Christmas coming up - I know I'll want to change out the art to match the festivities!
We have this TV and almost everyone who has seen it thinks it's art and has no idea it's a TV. The trick is to pick the right art. I have found that art with a lot of white in it looks grayish or has a weird glow. Also, at dusk and at night it's a little more obvious. During the daytime though, you truly cannot tell!
I’ve had a Frame TV since it was first introduced (so about 3 years?) and it has fooled many people who come to my home. Most of the time people catch on pretty quickly that it’s not real art but they’re not sure it’s a TV at first glance and we get a lot of double takes. The one thing that I think is misleading is the fact that there are still cords and a box. So if you want to hang it on the wall alone (like art often is hung) it will be pretty obvious unless you invest in some cable hiding system within your wall. We actually velcroed the box behind the TV itself so no wires show but this also makes it not sit as flush to the wall as possible. So for us it’s a trade off. We live in a small townhouse where the only good place for a tv is right beside the front door so this is a good compromise. If I had a dedicated TV room or the TV was in a less public place in my home I would not invest.
We just bought the 65 inch and put it above our fireplace. I cannot tell you how much I looooovvvveeeee this TV. The white frame was a game changer with all the white trim on our hunter green walls, it’s so beautiful!!!!
This might be a stupid question, but I'm assuming the TV always has to be on to display the art?!?
thanks
When you turn it off, it actually automatically goes into art mode. It uses very very little energy to do so, too. If you hold the power button, you can turn it completely off which is what we do when we go to bed. You can also set it to turn completely off after it hasn't sensed any motion for a time.
With it being in your bedroom, does it emit a "glow", even in art mode, when all the lights are off. I like it to be pitch black when I sleep. :)
Do you have to turn it back on art mode in the morning, or can you set a timer to turn off and on at certain times?
We are obsessed with Alone on the History Channel these days. Our kids love it, we love it, it even prompted my kids to build a shelter in the backyard out of sticks. Highly recommend!
Four Weddings and a Funeral was revived by Mindy Kailing on Hulu and it was really, really good!
I really NEED this tv. It doesn't look like a tv at all when you have it on the art setting. So neat!
Maybe a stupid question but do you leave your tv on all day to show the art? Does it use streaming data to show the art all day?
When you turn it off, it actually automatically goes into art mode. It uses very very little energy to do so, too. If you hold the power button, you can turn it completely off which is what we do when we go to bed. You can also set it to turn completely off after it hasn’t sensed any motion for a time. It doesn't use data to show art.
Hi - We are thinking about buying one of these, but wondering about the quality of sound. Do you need an additional soundbar? Have you connected it with Sonos or another home system? In my experience, the thinner the TV, the more it needs a soundbar, but that would ruin the ‘piece of art’ look for this TV. Thanks in advance for your insight.
If you like Survivor, you should check out seasons 1, 2 and 3.
Oh man, this was effective advertising!! I'm actually browsing ebay for frame TVs right now... and yay for me, it's actually possible to buy them in Europe. hmmm. Any tips on convincing my husband we need one? :)
Here is what worked for me: in a cliché guy way he was all for a bigger TV, I said okay, as long as it's the frame ;)
Also I just discovered
https://useum.org/
where you can download over 20.000 images from
Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, National Gallery id Denmark, j. Paul Getty Museum, Indianapolis Museu of Art and National Gallery of Art Washington FOR FREE to good not to share
(all you have to do is edit them to the 16:9 format)
Greetings from Germany