Do you have the same hatred for those messy cables that come down from your TV on the wall or behind your TV stand? It took me years to mount our living room TV on the wall because I didn’t want the cables messing up the entire look of the room. I already hated how they looked behind the television stand, and I thought it would take an electrician or some kind of special skills in order to hide the wires that hang down. Lucky for me that wasn’t true! Today I’m going to show you how to mount your TV and hide the cords inside the wall. Anyone can do it!
Supplies to hide TV cords:
- TV wall mount- They’re very inexpensive and pretty universal. I used this one. It’s for TVs from 26″ to 65″ up to 99 lbs. and tilts. It’s actually 50% off right now, so you can get it for $15 (I’m jealous)! It was easy to use and works great!
- in wall cable hiding kit- This Legrand cord management kit is so easy to use and comes with everything you need including the drill bit. I recommend getting it and not going with the $15-20 international knockoffs. I’ve read horror stories about them.
- drill
- Phillip’s head screwdriver
- Level if you don’t get the TV wall mount I recommended (it comes with one).
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Better Option than a TV Stand
When I ordered our living room furniture, I ordered a coffee table, one end table, and a sofa table. I thought we didn’t need two end tables, so the sofa table seemed like a better option. Now I wish I had ordered two end tables, but this cute little ladder shelf is doing a great job in place of one right now. My husband had a TV stand before we met, and it’s been doing its job for the last seven years. I’ve hated it from the beginning, so when we moved I was anxious to finally mount the TV and get rid of it!
It turned out that getting the sofa table was the best move I could’ve made because though I don’t have a mantle, I can now decorate like I do! I placed the sofa table under the TV with the cords hidden and made sure to give myself at least a foot of space between the bottom of the TV and the table.
Here’s the stand that we had. I had already begun removing all of the decor and items around the stand when I remembered to take a picture. The stand was a Better Homes & Gardens piece from Walmart. They have some cute stuff, but I was not digging this!
Measure the Wall
We placed our TV on the wall that you open the door on to enter the house. The larger section of the open living room/kitchen is on the opposite side. You can see the hallway that leads to the rest of the house. Since that was the case, I had to give enough clearance for the door to open easily. Once I knew how far the door opened, I was able to mark where I wanted the center of the TV to be.
Next, I measured the height of the sofa table and marked it under the first mark. Like I mentioned earlier, I wanted plenty of space to place decorate it, so I measured a foot up and marked it.
Find the Studs
The wall that we hung the TV didn’t have two studs where they would be needed. Luckily the mount that I bought could be mounted on a single stud.
Use a stud finder to locate the studs and mark the center of it (or them). It would be a huge help to use a stud finder that can tell you where the electrical wires are. The place that we were going to hang ours at first had the wires in it, so we had to move to the next one. I put X’s on the wall where the wires began and ended.
Hang the Mount
Now follow the instructions included in your mount and hang it on the wall. The one I used required placing the bars on the TV first. Then we assembled the wall part and hung a cardboard guide on the wall. Ensure that the guide is level before screwing the lag bolts into the wall. Turn off the power before drilling to avoid accidents as those are long bolts.
We hung our TV on the mount to be sure it was where we wanted it. The tilt feature was also secured where we wanted it at this point. I forgot to take a picture of how it looked with the TV cord hanging before we hid it behind the wall. While it’s up, mark where the power cable plugs in so that you can hide the cords easily.
Mark the Spots for the Cord Hider
The Legrand kit that I bought is so easy to put up, but first make sure that the power cable to your TV will fit through it. We had to remove the cord from our Samsung TV and replace it with the one from our son’s TV. The Samsung plug is oriented sideways so that it can supposedly sit flat against the wall. That was a huge negative because the cord hider could only hold a cable up to 1 1/8″ wide. Luckily our son’s worked. I nearly had a heart attack before that!
Place the circular wall inserts on the wall where you want them and mark the center. I also made little marks on the top, bottom, and each side of both. Our TV was pretty close to the outlet, so we were able to come straight down from the back of it, straight down, even with the outlet.
Drill the Holes to Hide the Cords
Attach the circular saw drill bit that came with the kit to the drill. Center it around the top mark and drill a circle in the wall. Repeat for the bottom. Be sure to turn the power off before drilling. A few of my photos are darker because the power was off, and the sun was almost gone.
Hide the TV Cords in the Wall
Feed the power cable to the top section of the cord kit through the top hole. Some of the kits come with a feed tape, but ours didn’t. The instructions said it did, but the Amazon description didn’t have it included. It seemed like the instructions for the feed tape were much more difficult than what we did! Just run the cord from the top and grab it out of the bottom hole!
You can feed any other cords through the wall as well.
I thought I’d add this photo to show you how it would’ve looked to have cords hanging. This is our Amazon Fire Stick cable and power cord. We ran it behind the wall after this.
Pop the Circular Mounts into the Wall
Now just plug the power cable from the top into the bottom section of the cord hider. Place them into the wall. Ours still tipped forward a little, so we cut some small mounting squares in half and placed them around on the back of the circles, then pushed it into the wall.
Hang the TV & enjoy the beauty of not seeing dangling cords!
That’s it! Plug the TV cord into the cord kit and hang it on the wall. Wasn’t that so easy? Less than three hours of work that was so, so worth it! I used the twist tie that came around the cord kit’s power cable to wrap it back up and shorten it since it’s so close to the outlet.
And here’s how it looks with the plugs covered as well!
It really was so easy! I’m telling you, I could’ve done it alone if I had to. If you hang your own, let me know how it goes and tag me in a photo on social media (@LifeasaLEOWife)!
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Perfect solution, you did a nice job on it! Thanks so much for linking up at the Unlimited Link Party 83. Shared.
Looks great! Need to do this in my home. The cable mess gives me anxiety.
Alexandra
EyeLoveKnots.com
Me too! That’s why I never mounted my TV back when I lived in an apartment. I even hated seeing them behind the TV stand.