These days televisions aren’t just for the living room where a family gathers around the single set in the house to watch a favorite show. They’re in multiple bedrooms in a home, the feature of home theater setups, companionship in the kitchen, sometimes dedicated for gaming, and even found in bathrooms!
Today’s guest post is by Jay Harris, a Home Depot “on the floor” sales associate and a regular contributor to The Apron, Home Depot’s blog. His interests include providing tips on TV mounts at Home Depot to covering the latest in LED light bulbs.
Do you remember back in the day when the family living room was the only place you would find a television set? Then they moved into mom and dad’s bedroom, then a guest room, then the kids’ rooms… these days, it’s often more unusual NOT to find a TV outside of the den.
Indeed, the invention of the flat-screen has made TV migration more possible because as long as you have a wall, you can hang a television. From kitchens and bathrooms to back porches and outdoor patios, there are very few limits to where you can watch the tube.
But just because you have the space doesn’t mean it’s the most practical (or even advisable!) spot to wall-mount your television screen. Here are a few of the most popular spots to hang a flat-screen and some best practices to keep in mind along the way.
Over the Fireplace
Although these can be show-stoppers for a room, there are usually two main categories of concern when it comes to mounting a TV above the fireplace: physical placement of the screen and functionality of your fireplace itself.
- The angle of viewing can be problematic for many above-the-fireplace flat screens. For one thing, if your fireplace mantle is especially tall or your room is more narrow than wide, you may have to hang the set disproportionately high for how close you need to sit to it because of your couch or chair placement. Think sore necks that come from sitting on the front row of a movie theater – same idea. Additionally, if the set has an LCD screen, these are difficult to watch if the angle is not just right.
- Depending on how often you use your fireplace, you may or may not have the option of using the spot above the mantle to hang your set. Almost as detrimental as water, heat applied to electronics can be devastating. And if your fireplace is wood-burning, forget about it because you’re also adding soot to the mix which can quickly clog a TV’s components.
Image courtesy of midtowncrossing via Flickr
Kitchen
With the advent of the Food Network and the Cooking Channel, learning how to cook while you prepare dinner has never been easier! Listening to the set or having it on in the background while you perform mundane duties like washing dishes or emptying the dishwasher can make them much less of a drag.
Just be careful when watching TV while you cook or bake, especially when handling knives, sharp-edged cans or hot items. It’s very easy to get distracted and wrapped up in “Grey’s Anatomy” and end up in a real ER getting fingers and hands wrapped up because you weren’t paying attention to what you were doing in the kitchen!
Bathroom
A great option for a bathroom television is one that swivels! This way, you can keep an eye on the news in the morning while getting dressed or shaving at the sink; you can turn it towards the shower and watch while you rinse off; or you can angle it to face the bathtub and wind down with a soak and your favorite show at the end of a long day.
- Don’t mount your television directly over the bathtub. Even if it’s a waterproof set, it’s still a piece of electrical equipment and placing it anywhere near a source of water is not a great idea.
- Avoid mounting a screen where it will detract from the bathroom. If your bathroom is fabulous, hanging the TV in a central spot could take away from the overall look of the room and if your bathroom needs some updating, a flashy flat-screen could look very out of place.
Wall Mounting Basics
Of course, you will receive wall-mounting instructions from the manufacturer of the TV with your purchase of the set but it’s up to you to actually use them: read the instructions first! This will save you not only a ton of time at the store because you’ll know exactly what tools you need, but also a ton of stress during the wall-hanging process itself because you’ll have a general idea of what you’re doing beforehand.
- Always have a partner to help you. One of you can read the instructions aloud while the other performs the tasks and it will take both of you to lift and attach the TV once you’ve installed the wall-mounting kit.
- On that note, you’ll get the best results by purchasing a wall-mounting kit that fits your particular flat-screen. If you have ordered the set separately, take the instructions with you when you purchase the wall-mounting kit from the store so you know exactly what kind to get.
- Make sure you have all of the tools you need before you begin. In addition to the kit itself, these are most likely to include: a level, a screwdriver, power drill and bits, stud finder, tape measure, socket wrench, cable-wire tester/locator and a pencil for marking your drill spots.
Although we’ve covered some of the general tips to consider when getting creative with your TV sets, what are some of the ways you have thought outside of the box when it comes to your flat-screen?
No compensation was received for sharing Jay’s post.
Great post Leticia. I install these things for a living, especially multi room configurations. Because of flat screen technology and improved wifi these televisions can end up in almost every room of a house. Always be mindful when mounting a television if it could come into contact with something hazardous, such as steam in a kitchen and water in the bathroom. Also consider your windows position and where the sun rises and lowers. Nothing worse than viewing your nice new installation only to have it ruined by sun glare.