How to Mount a Plasma or LCD TV on a Wall
This is the wall after my project was completed. Look ma, no wires.It's all the in-between steps that make up the rest of the how-to guide! Due to site management limitations, this material has been moved to TVWallMountGuide.Net.
posted by Eric at 8:40 AM
DIGG IT!
| Stumble It! | del.icio.us | Reddit
31 Comments:
Good job! I will install mine instead of paying $400. Thanks!
Thanks for taking the time to post this info! Very helpful.
This is a very nice tutorial.
Thanks for this. The desk grommets are a great idea!
nice job - now you need some flat speakers!
Okay, everything looks nice and all but I have two questions.
First, the 2nd to the last picture shows the tv mounted but it looks so thin against the wall. Did you have to cut out a hole for the tv to rest in?
Second, it looks like in your project, you only fed the cables vertically. If you were to feed the cables from the tv past several studs either left or right, how would you go about it?
Okay, everything looks nice and all but I have two questions.
First, the 2nd to the last picture shows the tv mounted but it looks so thin against the wall. Did you have to cut out a hole for the tv to rest in?
Second, it looks like in your project, you only fed the cables vertically. If you were to feed the cables from the tv past several studs either left or right, how would you go about it?
I don't see any electrical wires. What did you do with those? Do you have them running through the wall? Isn't this dangerous?
Thanks for the great post. With the cooling vents flush against the wall, are there any issues with overheating that you know about?
Thanks for the great post. With the cooling vents flush against the wall, are there any issues with overheating that you know about?
First, the 2nd to the last picture shows the tv mounted but it looks so thin against the wall. Did you have to cut out a hole for the tv to rest in?
No holes other than the wires. I wanted a very slim setup, so that's why I went for the 1" mount. The wife was adamant that the TV not stick out from the wall because the side of the TV is in you line of sight when you enter our front door. That's the great thing about plasmas and wall mounts.
Second, it looks like in your project, you only fed the cables vertically. If you were to feed the cables from the tv past several studs either left or right, how would you go about it?
You're correct. I did run the cables vertically. I've thought about your question before. I think there are a couple of things that I'd consider doing.
First, if I only needed to go over through one stud, I think I could knock out some dry wall, take a paddle bit and put a 1" or so hole in the stud. I don't think I'd do that over a series of several studs, which brings me to my second though.
If I was running wires like you're talking about, I think I'd drop the cables like I did (vertically between two studs). Then I'd pull up my base board and run the cables behind the base board to my end point. Then I'd either go up the wall and out a grommet or just come out under the base board.
I don't see any electrical wires. What did you do with those? Do you have them running through the wall? Isn't this dangerous?
Yes, the power plug to the TV is in the wall. There is an outlet behind the entertainment cabinet, which also has a shelf for a surge protector, allowing me to push the cabinet up against the all entirely.
I don't see how the TV power cable in the wall is a danger. I under stand that many city codes prohibit this. In this situation, I don't see a danger for rigging this one power cable through a 3' section of the wall. It's about 2" on the other side of the same wall it would be if it were on the outside of the wall. If you have some insight on why this is dangerous I'd be interested to hear more of your thoughts on this issue.
Thanks for the great post. With the cooling vents flush against the wall, are there any issues with overheating that you know about?
No problems that I've notice. I know there is a lot of venting on the top - I can feel the heat coming from it. But, no, no problems at all.
Thanks to everyone for your responses and questions. I'd love to continue the discussion if you have more!
Great post, thank you! One question. My wife is concerned that mounting the TV on the wall will be uncomfortable to watch because it is higher than eye level when sitting down. How have you found this to be? Thanks
As you can probably tell from the photos, the center of my TV is higher than eye level when sitting on my couch. The bottom of the TV screen is about where eye level is. If I'm really kicking back on my couch, the whole TV is higher than eye level. The bottom edge of the TV is actually 32.5" from the floor.
There's a lot of folks that say the center of the screen should be eye level. I rarely see this though. The TV just doesn't look right, from an aesthetic point of view when it's mounted that low on the wall. My wife actually chose the the mounting height on the wall. She has the design veto on every project I do.
Now, on to viewing pleasure . . .
We have no problem at all with the slightly elevated viewing angle. I think the key consideration you need to think about is your viewing distance. If your 15' from the TV, then you're going to be able to deal with a much higher viewing height than you will if you're couch is 6' from the TV. We're 10-12' from the TV depending on how we're setting on our couch.
I think a good rule of thumb would be to sit down on you're couch/chair draw a spot on the wall and look at it from the various positions that you sit it. If you have to strain your neck, then it's too high. My eyes can comfortably follow everything on my TV without having to move my head/neck. I think this is the goal. If you've got one nearby, take your wife and go to an electronics store that has a home theater set-up. That will give her a chance to look at a variety of viewing angles.
I'll also pass along a couple links about viewing angles:
http://www.practical-home-theater-guide.com/lcd-mounts.html
http://www.practical-home-theater-guide.com/Tv-viewing-distance.html
Good luck. Let us know how it works out.
I don't think those links made it. Here's try 2:
TV Viewing Distance
LCD Mounts Guide
Greetings, thanks for the links and comments on the placement of the TV. I have one other question that seems to keep coming up from my wife. We have a family room 14X24 that we are planning to put the TV into. The FR is rustic with a stone fireplace, roughcut wood wainscoat, and colonial type wallpaper above the wainscoat to the ceiling. She is trying to get me to remove the wallpaper and paint all the walls white because she says that the TV will not look good against the wallpaper. It will look better against a white wall. Even if she is right, do you think the TV will look all that bad on a wallpaperd wall? We have been looking at online photos of TV's on walls and cannot seem to find any against wallpaper.
Thanks
She is trying to get me to remove the wallpaper and paint all the walls white because she says that the TV will not look good against the wallpaper. It will look better against a white wall. Even if she is right, do you think the TV will look all that bad on a wallpaperd wall?
Bob,
I appreciate the vote of confidence in asking me such a question. However, if you recall the intro to my post, you'll see that I'm not the guy to ask when it comes to aesthetic appeal. (And, certainly, if your wife has read this post, I question your judgment for asking yours truly such a question).
So, I forwarded your question to my wife. Her only reply was, "Honey, he needs to take the wall paper down." I didn't go into detail with why, but I took that to mean that wallpaper would, in fact, look bad compared to a painted wall.
I have no opinion one way or the other of how it would look as I have great difficulty finding shirts and ties to match my suits. I will say this, if I were you I would take the wallpaper down and paint the wall. Two reasons: (1) you're getting a plasma TV; and (2) if it does look bad, you'll never hear the end of it until you actually paint the wall.
I know that you can find some wallpaper remover in a spray bottle at Lowe's and Home Depot for $5 or so. They got special scrapers to make the job easier too. Good luck. And if you want to take some before and after pictures, feel free to email them to me and I'll post'em on the blog here. (email to hawridger at yahoo.com)
Nice article - Where did you get those shelves/TV stand? I really like it and would like to get something similar for my LCD.
Thanks!
Where did you get those shelves/TV stand?
Circuit city. I think it was about $250. Actually, it was pretty hard to find. Most of the stuff we found that was this size either had doors that were solid or had glass panels. I've heard mixed results about how remotes work through glass, so that's something to think about. We shopped around for quite awhile until we happened upon this one at Circuit City while we were looking for TVs. We found that furniture stores were less likely that electronics stores to have something like this.
this is one of the best directions on how to mount a flant planel i've seen great job!
I would like to know where did you get the black trim piece where the cables come out of. BTW your setup is look sharp! !
I would like to know where did you get the black trim piece where the cables come out of.
I got mine at Office Max (see Step 8), although you can find them just about anywhere that sells desk accessories. Amazon's got the same 3" Grommet as well as a variety of other sizes if you're getting your mount, cables or TV from them too.
Excellent post. At last, someone who knows how to explain things in a concise logical manner. Very easy to follow and straightforward. Far better than 99% of the sites that I have come across which are either to difficult to follow or just don't have sufficient information.
Thank you for putting up this website. It really helped a lot better than the TV instructions and even better than the wall mount instructions.
However, we ran into one little problem. It was really difficult to move the wires from where the TV is to where base near the floor was. We had a lot of insulation that we had to work around and finally had to cut little slits in the sheetrock to push down the wires. I'm wondering how someone in the future can get around this.
Also at Fry's Electronics we bought two "bulk cable plates" that looks even cleaner. You just need to also buy two "j" boxes that went into the wall that the plates can be secured to.
If anyone has an idea to beat around all the insultion please post.
Depending on the insulation and distance, you can use a coat hanger or Lowe's sell a wire fishing tool that works pretty well.
Where did you find your tv stand? I have been looking all over and that one matches my living room perfectly!!
Nice information. Appreciate your hard work. Where did you purchase that nice looking cabinet? Thanks.
Kevin
Triathlon0410@aol.com
I read all the posts again & see that you found your cabinet @ Circuit City. Thanks for all your help.
Kev
Thanks for the post, this was very helpful and now my 42" plasma looks that much sweeter not sitting on a stand.
I must suggest though that you check to see if you have wood studs or metal studs, because I found out halfway through that I have metal studs in my apartment and I had to run to Home Depot and get some toggle bolts with a butterfly mechanism for mounting the bracket.
The grommet idea for running the cables is an excellent one. Thanks again!
-Will
Hi, I have an odd situation. I need to put a 42" TV in a niche above a fireplace. This is on an exterior wall with studs 16" apart. Problem is, the studs are so far off center in a space where I cannot move too far off center. I am thinking of fixing a flat wooden plank 0.5" over 3 studs and then fixing the mounting bracket over it. Do you think it will work? What would your suggestion be in this case? Thanks..
lol must've sucked when you finally got an xbox 360 haha
thanks for this step by step info,
i follow your instructions and it really work fine for me did it my self and it took me only an hour and a half, and the result is very spectacular, two thumbs up !!
Thanks for the information about how to fix the TV Wall Mounts
Post a Comment
<< Home