Installing a Swivel TV Mount and Hiding TV Cords + Cable Box
How to hang a TV on a wall that will swivel and how to hide the ugly black cable box and wires.
When we first moved into our lake house back in December, we had to figure out where all of our furniture would go. Almost everything fit, some pieces were used in different ways than in our previous house. The pieces that didn’t fit, we sold, donated or gave to our daughters. One of the items that didn’t quite fit was our large flat screen TV. In our previous house it was mounted on the wall above the fireplace.
In the new house, mounting a wall TV over the fireplace would not work well since the firebox opening was much larger and the mantel higher. The TV would not fit.
While we did the work on removing the wall between the living room and dining area of the kitchen, the TV sat in a stand on the turquoise sideboard. Once the wall was gone though, we knew we were going to have to come up with a new plan for it.
We came up with mounting it on the wall, but not just on regular TV mount…
… but one that swivels so that the TV can be easily moved to view from the living room as well as the kitchen.
It didn’t take long to get the TV on the wall once we had all the components in place.
How To Install a Swivel TV Mount
Once you have these components, hanging the TV is fairly easy. Here is what we used:
- Mounting the TV to the wall: We used this Full Motion TV Wall Mount for 19″-84″ TVs with Tilt and Swivel Articulating Arm and HDMI Cable, UL Certified – Walmart.com
. It costs $50 and comes with all the hardware you will need to hang it, except if you have to add 2 x4’s like we did. (see below)
. It costs $50 and comes with all the hardware you will need to hang it, except if you have to add 2 x4’s like we did. (see below)I was a little skeptical that it would hold such a large TV, but it does and very well. The wall mount needs to be secured into the wall studs. Of course where I wanted to center the TV on the wall, there were no studs. :-(
To remedy this situation, we needed to attach two – 2 x 4’s that were long enough to be secured to the studs. We attached them to the wall with lag bolts. It does bring the TV out 2″ more, but not a big deal. It would have looked nicer from this side view, but the 2 x 4’s were needed. Once the 2 x 4’s were secure we attached the swivel TV mount with the hardware it came with.
The TV is centered on the wall, but the actual swivel TV mount is attached slightly off-center to the right. This is the way is is designed so that the swivel arm has room to move out and then side to side.
Note: If you are going to use this exact swivel mount, figure out where you want your TV, then figure out where the mount has to go, it will not be directly centered behind it.
We wanted to have the cords come out of the center of the mount, but the power kit was not long enough. I wanted the TV higher, so we opted to have the top of the power kit come out of the wall below the mount. It would have looked better when the TV is swiveled to the living room, but life is not perfect. :-) I did play around with a wood frame to cover it, put it just made it look junky.
I do plan to hang drapes on the glass doors that frame the TV. They might be enough to draw the attention away from the TV when it is out and swiveled.
When the TV is back against the wall, you don’t see the swivel mount or cords.
2. Installing an in-wall cord system to run the cords behind the wall. We used this In-Wall Cover and Power Kit from Home Depot.
We used this kit before in the fitness room in our previous house. You can see how to install it in this post: How To Hide the Cords on a Wall Mounted TV. It is one of my most popular posts. It seems many of us want to hide those ugly black cords. :-)
3. Getting the power strip off the floor – To try to keep the jangle of cords somewhat organized, I mounted a power strip on the back of the sideboard using Command Brand Picture Hanging Strips.
I used 2 of the large size strips.
I placed one on the bottom and the other on the top of the power strip. A Command Brand hook holds up all the excess cords that we only use once in a while, like the cords for the Wii. These do not run through the wall. We simply plug them into the ports on the side of the TV when we need them.
We also moved the cable box on the top of the sideboard.
We hid it in the dresser and used this Infrared Receiver bought on Amazon. See the black dot on the center bottom of the TV? The cord to that goes through the wall and then through a hole in the back of the dresser and into the cable box.
If your TV is above a mantel and your cable box sits on it. Here is one easy fix that may help you hide it.
The infrared receiver only costs $16 and it works perfectly.
This is the item you need to hide the cable box: Infrared Receiver
Our TV is hung over the fireplace and unfortunately the cable box sits on the mantle NO drawer to stash that box in.
I painted the top of the mantle and molding under the top slab black, same black as the bottom raised hearth, to help blend the box in still looks ugly takes up valuable space.
What to do with the ugly box?
Kevin
Hi Kevin – The only thing you could try is moving the cable box to a cabinet or book case that is placed on the side of the fireplace. You can then run the wires to it as I did in this post: https://bit.ly/3ihMN52
This is perfect – I am a renter so am reading up on ways of hiding eyesores – cable box, cords and more w/o breaking the lease. Thank you for the wonderful idea!
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Great ideas, thanks.
TV Mount fireplace you can create a channel in the wall and hide the cables.
The 2×4’s behind the mount are a great place to hide your cable box. I’ve hidden two such cable boxes in this manner (w/o the extra framing) simply by resting it on and behind the TV. If you aim the IR receiver up, you can bounce your remote signal off the ceiling. It works just fine.
Hi David – Thanks for taking the time to share the way you hooked up your cable box. Great idea! One of those ideas where you say to yourself….”Now why didn’t I think of that?” :-)
Why do you have to run the extender into the wall and then into the back of the credenza? Why not just directly into the back of the credenza, where the box is hidden, then into the box?
Hi Lynda –
I am not quite sure I understand your question :-) There is a black wire. If it didn’t run behind the wall to hide it you would see it hanging under the TV.
good job you did with the TV mount! I could tell you about how many arguments my husband and I have had over the placement of the flat-screen TV… but I won’t. Suffice it to say that once the aforementioned husband got the TV mounted, we found out that when we sit at the dinner table and watch, you have to crane the head from its normal alignment on top of the neck to an unusual angle which renders the muscles crampy and sore! I’m hoping the TV will fail soon, so we can find a different arrangement.
You are so lucky to have Ed.
;-)
Hi Linda – You are funny. Ed and I don’t cut crown molding as a team anymore. Only one of us does it. Too much left-brain/right-brain thinking goes into the cuts and we drive each other nuts. I hope you don’t have to wait to long to get a new TV. :-)
You and Ed are so smart!!!! Love your posts always!! Xo
Thanks Nancy. It is nice to have the TV up and out of the way now. It makes the room feel larger, too. Enjoy your weekend.
I LOVE your idea for hanging the power strip on the back of the chest with Command picture hanging strips. Simply genius! Your new house is starting to look so lovely and cozy. I have to admit, when I first saw it I went “Hmmmm”. It was so dark and dreary!
Hi Denise – Slowly, but surely one day at a time I will banish all the brown and darkness that is in the kitchen. I am going to start painting the rest of the trim and doors soon which will make a huge difference especially in the laundry closet hallway.
Love the gray fuzzy furry person in the last photo. Meee-ow. They always have to be in the middle of everything, supervisiing.
Hi Maggie – Trax loves to get in every photo he can. He is in quite a few going back to the early days of my blog. He is my older daughter’s cat. We are pet sitting him and his sister, Kindii the dog while our daughter is traveling.
Wall mounted TV—very nice but I don’t think our old-style tube TV will look that great on the wall! hahahhahahahha!!!
Yes. Someday we will update to a flat screen ;-) We don’t have cable or satellite just network TV and we have a very weak signal even with an antenna so TV viewing really isn’t a priority ;-)
Do love how you’ve made it all look so streamlined! Nice work Diane and Ed.
Thanks Connie – That would be an interesting sight…an old style TV mounted on the wall :-) Things sure have come a long way.
Looks great. I like the idea of hanging up the power cord. Ours is still on the floor and I hate seeing it.
Shelley
Hi Shelley – The Command Brand strips and hooks make it pretty easy to get the cords organized. We had some cable trouble and the cable guy was out this morning. I added 2 more hooks to the back of the sideboard so I can easily get to any cord we need now and not have to untangle any to get to one.
Diane, I bought this RF remote control extender a few years ago: http://amzn.com/B000C1Z0HA, and I was amazed when it actually worked! I love having the cable box hidden away. It uses radio frequency rather than an infrared line-of-sight approach. I hope yours works for you.
P.S. I hope it doesn’t sound like I’m a shill for the company — I’m just one of your readers!
Hi P – Thanks for sharing the link to the radio receiver. I will check it out.