Happy Monday! Thank you to all the Talented Ladies that linked up to the Build{Hers} Club Partylast week!
You girls got skills! I’m excited to feature a few of my favorites over the next few weeks…starting with:
Angie over at Seriously A Homemaker, had an idea to hide her TV cords in a custom fireplace surround. Then she Built her “idea” and it became a “reality”!
What a functional, beautiful, darn good solution!
Angie, Take it away!
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Cords make me itch. Especially those that spew from my slick flat screen television mounted front-and-center above my fireplace. It’s an issue, right ladies? The Manchild, my husband, is blind to cords… The weirdo. Is this a Mars and Venus thing?For fear of drilling into the fireplace brick and mortar and/or the flue in order to thread the cords behind the wall, and with my anti-hire mentality, I came up with a super tricky and aesthetically awesome solution that I could do myself.Here is how I hid those pesky cords when we mounted our flat screen above the fireplace:
TRIMWORK WITH CHANNELS FOR THE CORDS TO RUN THROUGH! I nailed the trim to the wall with skinny brad nails. No caulk, so that the cover pieces can be popped off and re-installed if I want to add or replace a cord in there at a later date (change electronics or cable providers much?!).
Before the TV Arrived:
yuck. sorry. keepin’ it real!
After we put up the TV:
This it the best picture I could find, my lovelies! I didn’t think to take a picture of just the cords mess. We also had a PS3 sitting on the mantle for months with cords spewing out of it at all times. itch. scratch.
~nervous twitch~
Here is a step-by-step model for how to hide your flat screen cords in a sneaky AND beautiful way like I did:
Hiding Flat Screen Cords Step 1: Plan it Out
Draw a plan out on paper. Mount the television. Center it, of course. (Notice that with our mounting kit, the actual mounting bracket did not have to be centered perfectly, the TV can slide right and left on the stationary bracket in order to find center. The important point is to screw the mounting bracket into studs behind the wall.)
Then draw all over your wall lightly with pencil or chalk. Mark center, mark left and right edges of the trim-work-to-be. Mark where your cords exit the television on each side and decide where your trim work will best go in order to hide the cords AND look nice.
I had 2 cords exiting left and 1 cord exiting right. However, for architectural interest and balance, I added additional trim work lines on the top, bottom, and sides.
I used a 6-ft. crown molding shelf that I had purchased from Pottery Barn on sale about 4 years ago as the cap for my trim work. For everything else, I used simple lattice pieces from Home Depot. They are not wood, really. They are a plastic-y type of wood composite thing. (Nice vocab, Ang!)
Hiding Flat Screen Cords Step 2: Create Vertical Channels
These lattice pieces should and could be primed before mounting them on the wall.
Makes sure the vertical channels are WIDE enough to hold the cords you have, but NARROW enough, that a piece of lattice can cover the gap and overlap the channel enough to be nailed into place. Making sense? No? Sorry.
Also, make sure that you are consistent with your gap width, because ALL of the trim work needs to be the same width in the end. I cut out a thin piece of cardstock to use as my channel guide and stuck it between the two lattice pieces before nailing them down to ensure consistency.
Use a level. Follow your chalk lines on the wall.
Hiding Flat Screen Cords Step 3: Create Horizontal Channels
Isn’t it looking nifty??
Notice how the interior lines of the wood don’t match up perfectly sometimes. Doesn’t matter. I just needed my exterior lines to be perfect, because the mess of the interior will be covered.
Also, make sure you are going deep enough behind the TV that you won’t be able to see where the channels end. I DID NOT do this properly, and had to go back and add 2 inch pieces to my horizontal channels. Oops.
Notice the little light switch in the middle of my trim work on the right side? Dang switch. It REALLY complicated my whole project. It is the switch for my fireplace flue fan. Not sure why we need a fan, but I guess it’s a nice feature.
Because of that switch, I could not go as narrow or as wide as I would have preferred with the trim. And that caused lots of other problems, like having to split my vertical pieces in half to accommodate the mantle and also having to meet the crown molding at the top at a non-flat place.
See?
Your project will have it’s own quirks. Enjoy them and the extra hours they add.
Hiding Flat Screen Cords Step 4: Add Additional Channels for Balance & Interest
At this point, I was running back and forth between the family room and the garage where my miter saw is… over and over again. And the
nail gun was “pfffffd!-ing” away like crazy. It’s moments like these that I am the happiest. Excuse my little teardrops of joy. Snif!
I nailed the channel pieces and non-functioning cover pieces down to the wall, but only taped the cover pieces that I would be hiding cords under.
Hiding Flat Screen Cords Step 5:
Re-mount the TV and Place the Cords into Channels
At this point, I had to wait for
The Manchild to show his face again so that we could re-mount the TV and attach the cords. I made sure to pull extra lengths of the cords through the channels (but not more than could hide behind the TV when mounted) so that when we need to take the TV down, the trim work won’t be pulled off the wall before I can reach my hand under there and un-attach them. Does that makes sense?
By the way, I had to buy longer power and HDMI cords before starting this project. I believe they are both 12 ft long. And when the cable guy was here installing the cable, I had him use an extra long cord.
A video was the best way to show the next part:
And I was like, “Baby, baby, baby… I like the way you work with wood…”
Justin Bieber wasn’t REALLY playing when I did this, but I thought I might add him in just for fun. Except if it was real life, then I would have stopped taping down trim and started to dance. You all know that. If you didn’t, you know it now.
And now I am totally distracted and can’t remember what I was writing about…
Hiding Flat Screen Cords Step 6: Take down TV and Paint it All Up!
Secrets revealed:
I did NOT caulk the trim work, which I usually do with trim, because I want to be able to pop the channel covers off when we decide to change cable services/add another HDMI component, etc. I DID however, use some spackle on the noticeable gaps between trim pieces. It is white and paintable, but not like glue, right?
I had so much fun decorating the mantle for
Halloween after finishing this project. The whole area was just a mess and NOT the focal point that it should be. And now, with the trim work complete, the cords hidden, and the PS3 removed from the mantle, it’s a whole new room!
What do you think, friends? Here’s an up-close and personal shot:
I came up with this all on my own. Google didn’t help me AT ALL with this idea, so hopefully this tutorial can help other “outside-the-box thinkers” like myself solve their flat-screen TV mounting issues.
Tell me you love it?
Stop by my house sometime at SeriouslyAHomemaker and let’s have some {un}serious fun! You can find me on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest as well. When I am not wielding a nail gun (DIY) I am chasing my 4 kids and trying to convince my husband to take us out to eat.
Thanks, Sandra, for letting me guest post today! {smooches}
Seriously… Great idea! Right?
Go visit Angie at
to see some of her other projects.
And say hi for me! She’s really, really funny too!
Thanks for sharing with us Angie!
Ya’ll have a great day!
Leave a Reply
Looks great…wish I would have read this before we did all the wall cutting and climbing thru the attic that we did..
You are the "WOMAN"!!!! How great. Thanks for sharing! 8>)
How creative!!! It looks beautiful
Oooo. I definetly might be trying this one!
Hmmmm…now my mind is spinning with (new) ideas about what to do with all MY cords. What an awesome idea!
That is seriously awesome!!! What a great idea! I love to read how other people solve problems like that.
you guys are rocking my world today. i heart you all!
Hi Angie,This is really awesome. Not only does it look great but as Andrea points out, it's blowing my mind with ideas on how I can clean up my TV space. So very creative – thanks so much for sharing.Colleen
Awesome!! Thanks for this tip…very useful!
I love this project Angie! It turned out beautifully!
This is brilliant. Really, I think you have convinced me to get a nail gun so I don't have to see those god awful ugly things. Thanks!
Absolute genius. I am all over this idea…I have cords EVERYWHERE!! Lisa~
Hey there, I nominated you for a Stylish Blogger Award! Go to this link to see what's up =).http://classycosmetics.blogspot.com/2011/02/stylish-blogger-award.html
I've told Sandra this on twitter, but maybe it needs to be said here for all to read: Sawdust and Paper Scraps readers are the most kind, generous, and encouraging readers I've ever come across! Your encouragement has been incredible and much appreciated! You guys are giving me so much confidence, yet at the same time I don't feel pressure to be a full-time DIY-er (cause I can't be!). It's just fun to know ya'll! Thanks for the love!
Holy cow! What a great idea!Plus, I love the nail gun sound effects!
What an ingenious idea! This is something you should share with HGTV!
You’re right, there is nothing in cyberspace like your idea so I’m going to share it with the folks over on GardenWeb! Many Thanks!
I am slow getting back to you ann, but wanted to say thanks for chatting me up at GardenWeb! It’s quite a compliment to be good enough to pass on to others!
Where are you hiding your components? I’m struggling with where to put mine where they will look best. A picture would be awesome! Thanks!
Camille, I just actually am using a little night stand right now on the left side of the fireplace. On the top of the night stand is the PS3 (and a little tiny cable box), in the drawer are all the controllers and remotes (IDEALLY- YEAH RIGHT!), and in the space under the drawer I have 2 big zip up CD/DVD cases where we keep the DVDs. The cords are all stuffed into the back of the drawer and behind the dvd cases so that I see as little of them as possible, ya know what i’m sayin’?? good luck with your system! email me if you create this too!
Brilliant idea!!!! I’m Pinning this pronto!
Janis, A pin is my best friend! Thanks!
I think this idea is great but I can’t figure out how you made the channels to where you can open them up again. Did you just paint the painter’s tape white?
I just wanted to say thanks for this amazing tutorial! We will be doing this project for our living room
YAY!
I shared your photo here: http://houseofwoyaks.blogspot.com/2012/01/living-room-adventures-just-got-so-much.html
What Megan asked, how did you attach the channels that need to be able to be opened up? Did you nail them, but just not caulk and will pry them open if need be, or do something else?
Thanks in advance for the info, this looks great!
Hi Valerie. This is a guest post from Angie over at Seriously A Homemaker. If you could pop over and ask her on her blog, I’m sure she will be happy to explain in further detail. She’s awesome like that! http://www.seriouslyahomemaker.com/2010/11/hiding-flat-screen-cords-in-trim-work.html
This looks great! What a great idea. I am looking for a solution for my cords, but I have a brick wall to deal with.
http://www.parentsofadozen.com/2012/01/family-room-and-kitchen-updates.html
wow! amazing. i have been looking for an inexpensive way to jazz up the empty space above my mantle. we have tv up (no cords!). but we have a blank 20 ft wall above it. i like that just need to figure out where to stop it w/o going up20 ft. and having it look nice and complete. thanks for inspiring me.