Corner Mount Your TV on the Wall For Less than 50 Bucks – DIY

Posted on November 3, 2012 by Robert

Cost, Time, and Skills:

I spent $40 on this project, plus some leftover paint. I used a circular saw, power drill/driver, lag bolts, a cheap tv mount, and some paint. You’ll be lifting wood, and a tv, up high, so make sure you can do that lifting or have someone around to help. Step by step instructions are in the photo captions.

The story:

Last year we cancelled our cable. We started out with a deal that was super cheap. Then, over the years, the cable company kept increasing the rate until we were paying 80 bucks per month to watch tv. That’s lame. It’s not that we never watch tv. We watched it a lot when we had cable. We saw that as a problem, so we cancelled it and started reading books and doing projects a lot more. It’s been quite liberating.

I drilled lots of little holes looking for the studs. Since we have plaster, a stud finder doesn’t work. These holes are hidden behind the TV now, so it’s all good.

However, we did run into a problem with having no cable this August. That problem was the Olympics. We really wanted to watch them, but didn’t want to pay for cable. We had purchased a refurbished HD antenna off of Amazon, but were unsuccessful hooking it up because our tv was analog. That’s when my wonderful wife suggested we purchase a new tv, one of those fancy flat jobs. So I went out and bought a 43″ plasma. I’ve always kinda wanted one of those. The Olympics came through swimmingly on our HD antenna and the price was $0.00 per month.

I found the studs. Finally.

Since August, we’ve had the tv sitting on the same tired old table where the old tv had been sitting. Both Christy and I have wanted to mount it on the wall, in the corner above the outlet, but the cost of those metal mounting brackets kind of scared me. Some of those mounts run upwards of two hundred bucks. Plus there’s the fact that our walls are plaster and we’ve found the spacing of the studs in our crazy old walls to be less than reliable. This is a problem if your store-bought mount only allows for screws in certain standard spacings.

Attach 2×4 sections to the wall using lag bolts long enough to really hold onto the studs. It’s an expensive TV, so you want it to stay.

If you’ve looked into wall mounts for tvs, you’ve seen the three different types: flat, tilting, and fully articulated. Since we wanted our tv to be in the corner, we’d need to buy a fully articulated mount, bolt it to one wall, and move it into position in the corner. Of course, the fully articulated mounts are the most expensive. The ones in stores cost 200+ dollars, but there are ones online that are much much cheaper. I could have ordered a cheaper one online, but I want to feel the weight of something like this before I buy it. Since it’s holding my expensive tv, it had better be strong. I just didn’t want to order one online, so I decided to build one.

Attach horizontal 2x4s to the ones mounted to the wall. Since they hit the wall 2×4’s at an angle, you’ve got to mitre the ends. I used a mitre chop saw, but you can buy a mitre box for a hand saw for around 15 bucks. Also use lag bolts here. It may be overkill, but I don’t like expensive TVs to fall down.

Instructions:

My first task was to find the studs running vertically in the walls. You can see in the first photograph above that I did some searching. Since the walls are plaster, you can’t use a stud finder. The plaster is applied to a series of thin boards which are attached to the studs. These thin boards are called lath and totally prevent the stud finder from finding the stud. With plaster walls, the best way I’ve found for finding studs is to use a very thin drill bit to drill a series of tiny holes. When you hit a stud, it’s much harder to drill down and you’ll pull back some wood chips along with the plaster. In the second photograph above, you can see where I marked a vertical line between two holes in a stud. This line roughly marks the center of the stud. You can fill in the other holes with spackle and paint over them, or you can leave them like I did. They’re behind a tv so nobody can see them. Right?

Here’s the completed wooden construction. It’s pretty simple once you step back. Make sure everything is level.

The third photo shows the base boards I bolted to the studs through the plaster. I cut two 18-inch sections of 2×4 with mitred ends (for looks, not required). I then drilled holes through the boards for 6-inch lag screws. I used a 3/4-inch drill bit to widen the hole on the top so that the washers and screw heads would be even or below the surface of the boards. This was important because I would be mounting other boards directly over the lag screws. I pre-drilled holes into the studs for the lag screws so that they would be easier to drive into the old wood. I used a level to make sure the base boards were perfectly vertical on the wall before I pre-drilled those holes. Even with pre-drilled holes, the screws heated up quite a bit as I fought them into the studs. I would highly recommend you twist one screw for a few turns, then move on to the other. Feel them with your fingers to make sure they’re not too hot. Let them cool for a while if you have to. If they overheat, you can twist the head off of the screw. . .and then you’re screwed.

Attach a standard (and cheap) tv wall mount to the wooden frame you’ve built.

If you look closely at the last couple of photos, you can see that the base boards are not the same distance from the corner on each wall. That’s because the studs were not evenly spaced from the corner. That made this next step a little tricky. I measured from the corner of the wall to the center of each base board, and then across the empty space from the center of one base board to the other. These three measurements make up a right triangle and allowed me to use a little trigonometry to find the mitre angles I needed to cut my stretcher boards. Remember that stuff? Sine. Cosine. Tangent. When am I ever going to use this crap again?

Hang the TV from the wall mount and you’re all set for hours of entertainment. I also installed a small light fixture on the wooden frame behind the TV so it’s backlit. Very nice.

I cut the boards to the correct length with the correct angles using my mitre/chop saw, but you can use a hand saw and a mitre box if you’ve got one. I had to use a sander to correct the angles just a bit before I bolted the boards in place. I used 3-inch lag bolts to secure the two stretcher boards to the base boards, checking to make sure they were perfectly level along the way. Once they were up, I attached a cheap (20 dollar) tilting tv mount to the stretchers. My tv attached to that. You can see in the last photo that I screwed a thin board to the left wall. All of the cables run behind this board so it’s a clean install. I then used some leftover paint to paint the boards the same color as the walls and it’s all very clean.

We bought the marble-topped low dresser at an auction for 75 bucks and it’s got plenty of room to store whatever we need it to store. We moved the computer from under the desk to on top of the marble and hooked it up to the tv with a dvi to hdmi cable. That makes watching downloaded content much easier and impressive and makes editing photos in photoshop pretty awesome.

If you’ve got questions or comments, you can leave a comment below or email us at oldhousecrazy@gmail.com. Thanks for reading. -Robby

Posted in Better than store bought, DIY, Don't Hire a Professional, Electronics, Furniture, Home Built, Home made, Tools and Techniques, Woodworking | Tagged , , , , , , , | 18 Comments

Updating/Restoring an Old Stereo Console – DIY – Part 1 – Planning

Posted on October 28, 2012 by Robert

**Finished Product Post**

In 1971, my parents purchased a brand-spankin-new stereo console from Sears. It was stylish, well made, and one of their first furniture purchases. This beast had a radio tuner, record player, and an 8-track player. In true 70s style, the speakers are hidden behind some awesome orange-brown speaker cloth and the brains are under a lift-up panel.

The hidden nature of the radio controls and its old age make it really easy for people our age to ignore this piece of furniture and think it’s just an old dresser.

This piece has been passed around my family a bit since its original purchase in 1971. Between then and the year my brother went to college, records and 8-tracks went the way of the dodo, and only the radio and speakers still worked, sort of.

My brother took the stereo and used it as a radio and conversation starter in his college apartment. Four years later, he gave it to me for the same purposes in my college apartment. After college, the console came home with me and eventually found its way into our crazy old house.

Now, it is certainly not period appropriate to our home, but we love it and its family history. When you turn on the radio, the speakers (when they’re working) use our old wooden floors to amplify the sound and you can hear it throughout our home. The radio tuner only works if you crank the knob all the way up to 107 fm and then bring it back down into the 90 fm range. The speakers occasionally go in and out. There is a Doobie Brothers 8-track in the player with my dad’s name printed on it using one of those old label makers.

Even with our love for this piece, we decided a while back that we’d sell it and put something else in its place. We dragged it out into our yard during our yardsale a few weeks ago and tried to get some goofball to give us 50 bucks for it. During the process of selling it, I turned on my killer salesman tactics (teachers make great salesmen) and told people that they could refinish it, replace the speakers, hook it up to your home audio with some new brains, and have a really awesome, retro-styled, home entertainment center. I totally sold it. . . to myself.

So that’s what we’re planning to do: sand and refinish the wood. Replace the speakers with new ones that aren’t 40 years old. Rip out the old audio equipment and drop in some updated brains, capable of playing digital files and CDs even. Run cables through the walls and connect this console to exterior speakers on the porch and in the backyard with controls in the console. Rock.

Here’s the problem: I have a nerdy highschooler’s understanding of audio equipment. That’s to say that I know the names of all the speakers and components, but when it comes to actually wiring and soldering new stuff together, I’m ignorant. This should make a very interesting project, as I’ll be doing a lot of learning over the next few months. The goal is to finish before Christy’s birthday in January so we can crank it up for her chili party.

If you look at the photos and have any great ideas or cautionary tales, please post a comment or email us at oldhousecrazy@gmail.com . We really want to hear from you. Thanks for reading. -Robby

Posted in DIY, Electronics, Furniture, Old Hardware, Restoration | Tagged , , , , , , | 11 Comments

A Basic Bookclub Host Menu | Entertaining at Home

Posted on September 23, 2012 by Christy

The more active of the two bookclubs I am in meets about once every six weeks on a Saturday at rotating members houses. After about a year of getting to know the majority of these awesome ladies, it was my turn to host last Saturday, and I was uber thankful to my Pinterest boards for laying out the majority of my menu. Bookclub is set up so that whoever is hosting, is hosting. If you’re not hosting, all you have to worry about is reading the book and showing up for a fun evening of wine, food, and conversation. With the number of people involved in this group, it works out so that each person only hosts about once per year, so when it’s your turn, you’d better be ready.

For the month or so before the meeting, I’d kept my eyes open on Pinterest for simple, delicious dishes that were mostly vegetarian and would play to a majority of tastes. That’s a little trickier than it sounds, because I also wanted to be sure everyone was full, but not in a food coma all night. Delicious, simple, filling, but not overwhelming.

I can’t take credit for all of these recipes, but I can speak to their results and give you the links here. All but one that I tried (baked zucchini chips what were soggy instead of crispy, booo) turned out great!

1. Cucumber cups stuffed with tuna salad – I used a smoked tuna salad from my favorite farmers market. Pinterest link here: http://pinterest.com/pin/218495019392763075/ – pretty self explanatory from the photo. I liked this dish because it was an easy way to eat tuna, and without any bread.

2. Crispy edamame – I followed the recipe written out in the pin description, and will definitely make this again for myself! Healthy and filling, this dish served warm was a big crowd pleaser: http://pinterest.com/pin/218495019392365343/ . I used a parmesan that was very coarsely grated, and used more like a half cup than a quarter cup.

3. A fresh spinach salad – I didn’t follow a recipe for this one. I bought a bunch of fresh items from the farmers market and just made a light dressing to toss in: spinach, roma tomatoes, feta cheese, dried cranberries, a tiny bit of finely diced red onion, and dressing of lemon juice / olive oil / herbs.

4. Fresh fruit bowl – ripe strawberries, raspberries, and kiwi. A nice balace for the salad.

5. A crusty baguette from the farmers market with soft goat cheese on the side for spreading. Yuummm!

6. Black bean & corn salad – inspired by this pin, but modified because I already had edamame in the Crispy Edamame dish. My favorite element was the fresh lime juice squeezed in — fresh citrus makes such a difference when compared to those small bottles of lemon or lime juice at the store. I served blue corn chips and a red tomato salsa on the side for people to mix them up as desired. Protein in the black beans helps fill you up without making you sleepy.

7. Pumpkin cupcakes – I modified this pinned recipe to make the dish a little fresher, and used a different icing recipe that was also fresher & simpler than the original (crisco in icing = gross and unnecessary, in my opinion). I made my version of icing from 4 cups powdered sugar + ~2 tsp cinnamon + 8 ounces cream cheese + 2 tbsp whole milk, in that order, beat in the mixer. For the cupcake recipe, I substituted a can of actual pumpkin for the jello pumpkin spice pudding mix, and cut the butter in half. You’ll need to bake the cupcakes for 28-30 minutes if you substitute canned pumpkin for the pudding mix like I did. I doubled the cinnamon in the icing that the original pinned recipe called for to make it more present in the overall taste of the dessert, and used a special Vietnamese cinnamon from Penzeys Spices. Side note: we buy as many of our spices and seasonings as we can from Penzeys; they are high quality, delicious, pretty affordable and they recently opened a store in Atlanta (so you can smell them in person before buying)!

Regarding drinks, we keep it plain & simple: water and wine. If I were to fancy-up the drink offerings, I have a short list of seasonal cocktails that I’ve been wanting to test out for small gatherings:

Honeycrisp apple sangria – fall

Cranberry ginger fizz – winter

Mimosa punch – spring

Peach flip – summer

What’s your go-to dish or drink when people come over?

Thanks for reading!

-Christy

Posted in Desserts, Food, Healthy Eating, Home made, Recipes | Leave a comment