Nothing looks better than a wall mounted TV that is clean, without clutter or wires showing! We'll show you how quickly and relatively inexpensive it is to install a wall mounted TV without all of the clutter. Mounting your TV to the wall is not only a great way to save space, but it also looks nice and clean. However, there’s a little more to it than just buying a wall mount and screwing in your TV. Here are a handful of things you should know when it comes to mounting your TV to the wall. Decide Where to Mount Your TV First off, you need to figure out exactly where you want your TV to go. This is something that is ultimately up to you, but there are a couple of rules of thumb to be aware of. The most important rule is to mount your TV at eye level from where you’ll be watching it, if at all possible. This usually means the bottom of the TV will be somewhere around 2-3 feet off the ground, give or take a few inches. Many people mount their TV up high above a fireplace or bookshelf, but that’s usually a bad idea since you crane your neck up to see your TV, which can be very uncomfortable when done for an extended period of time. The only exception is in the bedroom, where you might want to lie down and watch TV at the same time—having the TV mounted up higher toward the ceiling is great for this, as you would have to tilt your head forward as severely. We've researched the web and we were able to find all of the mounts, brackets and wiring set up that you'll need from Amazon......they're cheap and if you have a Prime Membership, it will be at your front door in days. Mounting Systems Get the Right Mount Type and Size, there are generally two types of wall mounts that you’ll come across. The first one is an articulating mount, which comes with a couple of articulating joints that allow you to pull the TV out from the wall and turn it in nearly any direction. The second type of TV wall mount is also the most common, called a tilting mount. These allow you to mount your TV to the wall at multiple points—sometimes up to six—so they’re great for larger, heavier televisions. The only downside is that you can’t swivel the TV side-to-side—you can only tilt it up or down, and even then you can only tilt it a few degrees. But if you’re going to be mounting it at eye level right in front of the couch, you really don’t need any major articulation features anyway. Once you decide on the type of mount you want, you also need to make sure that it will fit your television’s mounting holes. All modern televisions are VESA mount-compatible, which simply means that they comply with the Video Electronics Standards Association’s mounting standard used by pretty much every TV mount on the market. However, televisions have different mounting holes, so it’s important to get the right size mount that will fit your specific TV. Luckily, thanks to the VESA standard, it’s really easy to figure out what mount size you need. If you look on the back of your television, there will be four screw holes that form a square. Simply measure the distance between two of those screw holes (not diagonally) in millimeters. So if the distance is 400 millimeters, you would need a VESA 400 mount (or sometimes called VESA 400×400). Luckily, most tilting mounts are compatible with pretty much any VESA mount size, but it’s always a good idea to check before you buy one. Selecting the best and right location to mount your TV. Now that you have the TV wall mount, its important that you pick the proper location because you just can’t pick a random spot and start screwing it in. Televisions and the mounts themselves are heavy, so you need to make sure that you mount your TV correctly so that it doesn’t come crashing down after you install it. Checkout the following site to know what tools you'll need to do this job right: The Basic Tools Every DIYer Should Own You’ll need to screw the TV mount into wall studs for maximum holding power—if you just mount it to the drywall, you’re sure to cause a lot of damage, since drywall isn’t actually that strong. Get a stud finder and use it to locate the studs behind the drywall. Studs are placed every 16 inches on center, so you should be able to mount your TV on two studs if you’re using a tilting mount, sometimes three studs if you have a larger television and mount. From there, place the TV mount where you want it (have a second person there to help) and mark with a pencil where you need to screw it into the wall, making sure that there are studs at these locations. Before you screw in the TV mount, though, you’ll need to drill pilot holes, which will prevent the studs from splitting when you drive in the screws. Plus, if the mount uses thicker screws or bolts, it’ll be pretty much impossible to drive them in without drilling pilot holes anyway. Remember that the drill bit for the pilot hole will need to be just slightly smaller than the width of the screw. Once you have your pilot holes drilled, you can now position the TV mount on the wall and drive in the screws or bolts using a power drill or socket wrench (depending on the type of screws or bolts used). There will likely be instructions included with your TV mount, so be sure to take a close look at those if you’re unsure of anything. After you’ve placed the mount on the wall, it’s just a matter of attaching the brackets to your TV using the four screw holes on the back of the television, and then hooking that up to the wall mount. Hiding those pesky wires. The best option is to install a organizer kit that more or less creates an extension cord behind the wall using code-compliant electrical wire, as well as a dedicated tube to feed other cables through. This will allow you to plug the TV in right where the mount is, and the rest of the cables get routed down near the baseboard where you can then plug the cables into their respective devices. (You could just drill two holes in the wall and run the cables through them, but that’s against code.) However, installing something like this requires cutting a hole in your wall and a bit of electrical know-how, so if you’re not quite sure what to do, feel free to call a local handyman or electrician to do it for you, or get a knowledgable friend who can help out. If you’d rather not make giant holes in your wall either way, then the easiest method is to buy a cord hiding kit that you simply screw to the wall and route all of the cables through that. It won’t make the cables completely hidden, but it will look a lot cleaner than just leaving the cables dangling. In the end, mounting a TV to the wall isn’t too difficult, and I highly recommend it if it’s possible to do in your home. You'll be happy you took the time to do it and your family and guests will like the clean look.
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