So, we've had this TV for a looooonnng time, I think its around 11 years old. I feel like we're the last family to upgrade to a flat screen. The picture doesn't quite capture how massive and invasive this TV was in our small family room. Not to mention that it was just plain unattractive. I tried artwork around the TV, things on either side of the TV, nothing seemed to look right. Please ignore my husband's hat hanging on the bamboo (Alex: it served as good luck for the Yankees last season until they lost in the 1st round of the Playoffs).
Being frugal-minded, I ordered this mount from Amazon for about $30. There was a ton of reviews online and mostly positive so I felt pretty good about ordering it. This is a basic no-frills mount, but that is what we wanted. Any similar mount we could find in the stores were at least $75, and most were at least $100. I have no idea what the difference is with this mount and the others.
I measured the wall, measured the TV, and used my painter's tape to mark the top and bottom of where we wanted the TV to hang. Then I looked for the studs (Alex: Adrienne is an expert when it comes to finding studs).
This was very confusing. I used the stud finder then nailed a bunch of holes with a thin nail to figure out exactly where the stud was--studs are supposed to be 1 1/2 inches across, but that wasn't what I was finding. Check out all my nail holes. The 'S' means I thought is was a stud. This was way longer than 1 1/2 inches.
After about an hour of contemplation, I just decided to go for it. I figured that probably was somewhere in the middle of some sort of stud. Drilling the pilot holes and screwing in the lag bolts was pretty simple. Just had to make sure the mount was level.
We did have a small problem with the screws that held the bars on the TV. The screws provided in the kit were too long (even though the instructions said they were the most common sized screws for these TVs). Alex and I both went to different Home Depots to find shorter screws, he was successful. Then, we encountered problem no. 2 - the tilt "option" was not being an option for us. We decided we wanted a flush mount and not a tilt but had a hard time tightening the arms into a mount that would be flush against the wall. We tried tightening both screws on each arm that we thought controlled the tilt to the point that we were bending the metal where those screws were tightened. We also found a couple of nuts that fit properly to further tighten one set of screws. We also stuck loose screws into a gap and finally seemed to have our flush mount. For some reason, no one commented about this problem in the Amazon product reviews but they did about the length of the screws.
For now we're using this sofa table to hold the cable box. Look at all of our lovely wires! Once we figure out what to put here for a console of some sort, we'll hide them in the wall. :)
For now we're using this sofa table to hold the cable box. Look at all of our lovely wires! Once we figure out what to put here for a console of some sort, we'll hide them in the wall. :)
P.S. I know my bamboo still looks ridiculous. Even minus the Yankee hat (Alex: maybe I'll try putting a Nats hat up this year).
Thanks for visiting!
---xoxoxoxo Adrienne
LOVE IT!!!!!!!
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