How to Mount a Flat Screen TV on a STONE fireplace {diy}



When we moved into our new house, it was apparent that we were going to have a little challenge on our hands trying to mount our TV...well if we had a TV. We sold our previous TV with our old house...so first we had a buy a TV. After weeks of searching, and watching TV on a tiny 18" screen, we finally purchased a TV as well as {this} mount, and additional HDMI cables (we went with 15' cables, but they were very long!!) 

This project took my husband the better part of the day. I can take ZERO credit for this project...I actually even was in bed taking a nap while he was installing the TV. {He's awesome, btw!}

Here is how we did it: 

*Background: Our home is new construction. We knew the stone is a facade, about 1/2-1" thick, and is hollow behind the drywall. We actually took off the electric plates and used a flashlight to see what we were dealing with inside...just the exhaust for the electric fireplace. Niiiice. 

*Electric was already set up, the cable hook up was there, but it did not connect to the wall jack in the cabinet, {there were two existing cable jacks but they were not connected to each other} so we ended up not using the cable line on the front of the fireplace, since there is one that directly connects to the cable just a few feet away in the cabinet...

*We borrowed an awesome stud finder from our neighbors, huge, huge lifesaver! Once we determined where the studs were located, we actually DREW directly on the stone the rectangle where the studs are located, where the rock/drywall needed to be cut out. 


We started with the TV on the cabinet, but I like the symmetry of having the TV mounted. I especially like that the kids can't touch it. If you are considering mounting a TV, keep in mind the height of the TV if you are hanging it above a mantel. Our mantel is high, so our TV is mounted extremely high: makes for terrible ergonomics. I mostly watch TV laying down on the sofa, so it's not a huge deal, but it does stink to have your neck craned back trying to watch a movie. 

Another potential issue is hiding wires. We hid all of the TV and cable wires (and HDMI for the play station) but we purchased a Bose sound system that has wires...we would have had to cut an additional opening through the stone/drywall right above the mantel to install a special face plate just for those wires. At some point, we plan on doing something else to hide those wires, or mask them...right now, I can live with them...






This was an extremely messy/dusty disaster. Our shop vac was just blowing around the very fine dust all over the place. My husband was working alone, I was out of the house...and when I came home there was dust on EVERY SURFACE (the negative side of an open floor plan) so definitely cover furniture, tape off/close doors, etc. Be ready to clean when you're done.




Once the openings have been made, it's much easier to see inside the wall to feed the wires through the two face plates (behind the TV, we actually did remove the plate because you can't see back there, and the wires make the plate not sit evenly, so it's just better without the plate...) 

To actually feed the wires from the front of the fireplace through the inside and out the side, we used a semi-rigid wire...to be exact we used the poles from our dryer vent cleaning system (the Lint Eater) rubber banding the HDMI + power wires to the lint eater, my husband pushed the wires from the front of the fireplace, and I helped to direct them to the side opening, feeding the wires through the A/V face plate (as seen below) then screwing the face plate into the wall. {I think this is the face plate we did purchase for the side of the fireplace.



Once the wires were properly fed through the opening (check with your mount to make sure it will fit around the wires) the next step is actually installing the mount. 

As you can see in the photo above, my husband cut the stone wide enough to fit a piece of 2x4 wood, long enough for the bracket we purchased. He screwed the 2x4 directly into the stud + followed the mount instructions to attach the TV mount onto the wall. Here is the very up close side view of the back of the mount. 



And just for the fun of it, here are a bunch of terrible pictures of the mounted TV...terrible lighting, odd glare, what was on the TV?! 







We are going to buy a Radio Frequency Remote (the one we have isn't compatible with the Bose) that will work with the cable box inside of the cabinet (you can see the open door of the built-in on the right of fireplace.) And then we'll have to figure out how to hide those exposed wires...I might crochet some yarn over them...too artsy?

Have you ever done a project like this?


Facebook Comments Plugin Bloggerized by BloggerTricks.Biz
Blogging tips