The TV in the master bedroom is a widely debated topic. Some seem to think that the tube will rob your bedroom of all serenity, while some think of it as a must have to wind down at the end of the day. Or maybe you’re like my lady, who likes to get her daily dose of news as she gets ready in the morning. We seem to have found ourselves somewhere in the middle. We liked the idea of the occasional lazy movie in bed, and Kim is hooked on the Today Show as she preps for a long day at the office (I personally think she has a thing for Matt Lauer). At the same time, we wanted a clean subdued look that wouldn’t call any unnecessary attention to the shiny, pretty toy.
A year or so ago, we framed two prints from our wedding with the idea of eventually using them to flank a small TV with a built in DVD player. We decided to hang them on the wall at the foot of the bed, where a TV would end up if we eventually pulled the trigger. And then we proceeded to hem and haw over the decision for the next twelve months.
Christmas came along this year and we found ourselves with a nice little pile of Best Buy gift cards, so we finally picked up a baby 19″ Insignia LCD TV with a built-in DVD player. After all that time, all it took was a little prodding from Santa and a generous gift from the folks (thanks Mom and Dad!). Along with our tiny TV, we picked up a low-profile wall mount to keep the little guy as out of the way as possible. A right angle Cable adapter (the gold do-dad in the right image) and a longer dual right-angle power cord help to keep the cables flush and free from kinks.
Running the cables behind the wall is really quite easy if you have the right tools. After using a stud-finder to ensure my path was clear behind the drywall, I used a hole saw attached to my power drill (like how it matches the paint? I planned that…) to cut perfect 1.5″ holes into the drywall at the top and bottom of my cable routing path. I used a weight tied to a piece of string to line up the holes, then fed the string from the top hole through the bottom. You can then proceed to tape your cables to the end of the string, which will make feeding everything through from top to bottom much, much easier.
After everything was fed through the proper holes, I used a generic switch-plate cover to tidy up the hole a bit.
This whole project, start to finish took about an hour and could probably be handled by just about anyone who is comfortable with power tools. The finished product turned out exactly as we planned, and we couldn’t be happier with how closely the size of the TV matches the size of the photo frames. And as always, we couldn’t have done it without Jack’s help. Thanks, little fella.
But now that we’ve confessed that we’re TV-in-the-bedroom kind of folk, we’d like to hear where you stand. Is it a no-no? Or is it a “who cares” kind of deal? Having friends that openly shun any between-the-sheets television behavior, we’re itching to read your thoughts. And if you are a tube watchin’ crew as you hit the sack, we want to know that too.
by Scott
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