Condo Blues: How to Install a Flat Panel TV Wall Mount

Sunday, September 9, 2012

How to Install a Flat Panel TV Wall Mount

We have a TV niche (big, fat hole) above the fireplace. When we moved in, Husband and I hefted our TV into the niche. I bought and configured a set of interMetro shelves to store the components above the TV.

how to install a flat panel TV

The speakers for the surround sound didn't fit in the niche as I hoped. I bought two CD towers to use as speaker stands and to store CDs. We lived this way for many years.

TV niche Before
CDs? The seem so quaint now. 

Two years ago, Husband gets the itch to beef up the living room. I get excited.

  • Is he thinking new paint? 
  • How about hanging photos to banish the just moved in look ( we’ve had for too many years)?
  • Dare I hope for more seating for guests? 
 Nope.

Husband proposed buying a flat panel TV as our family Christmas gift for better resolution and size for movies, video games, and Husband's Animals Eating Other Animals shows (you may call them nature shows.) We found a good price and couldn’t think of anything else we wanted or needed. We went for it. Merry Christmas to us!

Husband selected an Energy Star rated flat TV because he knew
 I would want to blog about it. What a sweetie. 

We put the new and much lighter TV into the niche and the shelves behind it. It worked but shorty me has to grab a chair to reach the DVD player.  After I got the itch to paint the living room accent wall with no VOC paint, I wanted a neater component solution.

I had some time to find a solution while the paint cured in the niche.

I bought Husband a flat panel mount for his birthday. As part of his gift, I became a flat panel TV installation gal because it's not fair to give him a gift and make it put it together before he can use it.

 How to Install a TV Wall Mount Bracket 


I bought Husband a Sanus Vuepoint Tilting TV Wall Mount. I went with a tilting mount because I thought it would be easier to install and work better in the niche than a swing arm TV wall mount (cheaper too.) This tutorial follows the instructions on how to mount my TV bracket, which should give you an idea what is involved when you buy whatever brand and type you buy. Make sure you follow your manufactor's instructions for installation.

1. I made newspaper mock ups of the TV and speakers and taped them to the walls to play with the placement. It's a good thing I took the time to do this because I almost mounted the TV too high to hang the center speaker above the TV. I also realized the surround sound speakers will not fit onto the back wall as I hoped.

Looks like I’m making speaker shelves after I mount the TV. 

2. I attached the brackets to the back of the TV with a screwdriver and the screws and washers provided in the kit.

TV Mount
The loops on the bracket allow you to open the hanger to connect the TV to the wall mount

3. I used a stud finder to find the studs…


stud finder
Can you tell I married an actor?

in the wall and marked them with a pencil. It is important to anchor the wall mount to a wall stud because even a heavy duty dry wall anchor is not heavy duty enough to hold the weight of the television. I do not have a stud in the center of our TV niche. This shouldn't be an issue because we can will center the TV on the mounting bracket after I bolt the bracket to the off center wall stud.

4. I drilled pilot holes for the bolts with a drill, popped the lag bolts into the appropriated areas, checked  the bracket was level with a level, and tightened the bolts with a socket wrench.

Righty tighty lefty loosey applies to lag bolts too

Then I did a little DIY niche blogging. Or cheesecaking. Or tawdriness if you notice how my skirt rode up a bit while I was goofiing around. Oopsie. 

Goofiness aside, it made the job easier being short enough to fit in the niche. 

5. Husband helped me lift the TV onto the wall plate. I screwed the mounting brackets into place with a screwdriver while he steadied the TV on the bracket.



 And we’re done!

For today.

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1 comment :

Unknown said...

I have to say, I do that with D whenever I use the stud finder and he hams it up the same way - and he isn't even an actor. Thanks for sharing this, we are thinking about mounting a TV over our fireplace and will need to use something like this. Thanks for sharing on Tout It Tuesday! Hope to see you tomorrow.

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