There are all kinds of options for hiding the wires of your television, each with their strengths and weaknesses. But when you know your television will be on a specific wall for the long term, why not actually hide them inside the wall? Adding cable access brush plates to your wall is easy to do and takes less than 30 minutes.
Materials Needed:
• Cable Access Brush Plate (single gang) x2
• Old Work Low Voltage Wall Electrical Box (single gang) x2
• Drywall Jab Saw
• Screwdriver (I use this electric one and love it)
TV's should be hung on interior walls (not a Universal rule, but good rule of thumb), which is good for this project because interior walls are often open inside (no insulation) so you can run your cables through the wall easily.
Step 1: Trace and cut the holes
Place your electrical box on the wall where you want it to end up, and trace around it. Use a stud-finder if necessary to ensure there are no studs in the way. You want to cut your hole about 1/8-3/16 on the inside of that line, to give space for the lip of the electrical box to catch. Do this in a location that will be behind the TV, but not where you will need to put your TV mount. Then repeat the process, adding another box where you want the cables to come out. Make sure it's somewhere that will be hidden, either down low behind a dresser or credenza, or you can even go through the wall to the room behind if you have that option and it makes sense.
Step 2: Screw in the electrical box and feed the cable
The great thing about TV cables is you can use the low-voltage electrical box, which is basically completely open into the wall. Screw it in place and run your cables through the wall. I find it a lot easier to run the cables before you add the brush plate. If the second box is directly below the first one, as in our case, simply drop the cable end down and pull it out.
Step 3: Add the brush plate and close up
Slip the cables through the brush plate and screw it into the electrical box. Then add the plate cover and you're done!
We've done this trick with several of our TVs, and love housing our TV components in a piece of furniture or something that blends naturally into the room. For example, in our bedroom, our dresser.
We drilled a small hole through the back of the dresser and ran all the cables into the top middle drawer. Some components will require quite a bit of ventilation so they don't overheat (gaming consoles, for example), so wherever they're stored you'll want to plan for that. But this is a simple project that you can do with minimal tools and time. And it makes such a big difference in keeping your space looking clean.
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WE'RE CHRIS + JULIA
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Would love to see how/what you did to your dresser to accommodate housing, as described!
Any suggestions for how to hide wires when hanging above a fireplace?
Mind blown! My electrician just left those rectangular holes on the wall after mounting our tv. Someone suggested I get a brush plate which I did but couldn't attach it directly to the wall. Now I know we need that orange electrical box? I'm adding those plates tomorrow. Thanks Chris.
Do cables and cords run in a wall like this have to follow electrical code?
It depends on what kind of cords they are. Low voltage (like audio or phone lines) can be run where you want, so long as you follow guidelines to prevent interference from other electrical wires that may be in the wall.
How would you suggest routing through the wall if the placement is over a fireplace? This is my diy hang up.
That's a different beast and all depends on the access you have around it. Doesn't hurt to hire an electrician to help consult on that.
Do you have any tips on how high above a dresser/stand a TV should be hung?
It really depends on what you want it to look like, but there are some rules of thumb we try to follow. We'll put them together in a post and share!
Any advice on how do to this if you have plaster walls instead of drywall?
Great that you show how to do this!
Thank you so much for this remarkable, yet simple to do post and video.
The dresser is absolutely STUNNING. Where is it from?
Great post! I would be wildly appreciate if you could do something like this for plaster walls? We bought a beautiful 1940's brick Georgian and are literally constantly baffled by how to hang ANYTHING on the walls, let alone hang a TV with no wires. HELP!
I would love to hang a frame TV over the mantle which is plaster over masonry. Insert bug eye emojis. Clueless on how to do it. Is it even possible? I live on the East Coast, half of these houses are all plaster, am I the only one who has no idea how to do this?
Anyways love you guys so much! Your tutorials are so helpful!!
This has been on our to-do list for years. Thank you for this post!
Any experience with a wall with insulation?
Please tell me where that dresser is from. Also I love the hidden cable in the wall look, I just really don't trust myself to do it. I'm going to bookmark this so that I can get someone to assist me.
We have The Frame TV with the cord inside the wall. We would like better sound, maybe a sound bar but dont want to destroy the look of the TV as a frame. Do you have any speakers or sound bar connected to any of your frame TVs or have suggestions if we want a sound bar?
Affordable flooring options were can i find them
Looks so easy! Can the power cord also be hidden this way?
The power cord provided by Samsung is not “in wall rated.” Running it behind a wall like this is against code. If you ever ran into a problem, you may be in a sticky situation with your insurance company. Feel like you should add a disclaimer.
I’ve never heard of a brush plate. Thanks so much for this tutorial. Currently have four tvs waiting to be hung, but I’ve put it off simply because of the ugly cables that would then show!
It's against code to run the TV power cord through the wall (NEC 400.8). It's a definite fire hazard. You'll want to install a new outlet behind the TV or buy something like a Powerbridge, which is a very convenient alternative if you don't want to wire a new outlet.
Hi Chris and Julia!
Your TV looks really a really"comfortable" mounting height above your dresser. What's your recommended height between the top of furniture and the bottom of your TV? Or, did you focus more on the center height of your TV?
Thanks so much!
Lisa
Love how clean that looks! Little fixes like this are a lot simpler than most people think
FYI - check local codes before you run power cables through walls like this! Some building codes will prohibit this, and you'll need to put an outlet directly behind the TV instead.
Thanks for the tutorial. Off subject but are those the knobs from rejuvenation? I’ve been eyeing them. They look lovely. Thanks
We have been trying to decide how to mount our TV in our sunroom, which was an addition to our home and has a fireblock within the wall around the perimeter of the room. There's no getting past it (while still keeping things to code) in order to run our cables through the wall. Do you have any suggestions for "hiding" cords in a situation like this?
Andddd for those of us with brick walls...? (once we're over being envious of how easy this looked!)