Make It Swivel, Yo. That TV, you know?

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If you're like me, you've always dreamed of a flat screen tv hanging on your wall. It's almost as awesome as the flat screens that are built into the bathroom mirrors at the Trump Hotel. Almost.



At our  new place, we imagined that the TV would go on this beautiful credenza purchased from Department Chicago. The mess of cords beneath it, combined with the oddity of having a blank wall that needs art (but a tv that would block any art we put up), convinced us we needed a different plan. So, we decided to... drum roll please... hang it up.

Try not to cry, because I know this is JUST like that episode of Extreme Makeover Home Edition you watched last night where they made over someone's home and everyone got all emotional at the end and cried. <---- I'm a smart ass, I guess.

Anyway, now down to the How-To-Decor. We decided we not only wanted it to be wall mounted, but we also wanted to be able to tilt and swivel. Go big or go home, right? Plus, when you can potentially watch tv from your living room, your desk, or your kitchen, there's added incentive to ensure you can swivel/tilt the screen to optimize that amazing strategery (strategery. making words up since 1989, that's me).

We first purchased a wall mount from Home Depot for somewhere around $150. Seemed like a good deal -- that is, until Justin found it on Monoprice.com for $60. We threw in all the cables we needed to hook up just about anything you can imagine to the TV as well as the speaker system we have, rounding out the price for literally everything we need at less than it costed us for just the mount Home Depot. #score Thank God Home Depot accepts returns without receipts (as long as you have the credit card and original packaging).

Also, we saved an additional 10% using a coupon (Amen!). So we ended up at just shy of $120. Not bad for getting everything in one stop, shipped to your door!

It came pre-assembled, so all we had to do was find a way to mount it successfully. This largely depended on our building.

In the last apartment, the quality of the walls was so poor that, when we tried to screw anything in, the drywall wasn't deep enough and we ended up hitting brick. In this apartment, however, we were able to use a stud finder to find studs in the wall to screw into. We picked up a stud finder at Ace Hardware for ~$15.

Once we measured, leveled, and marked where we wanted to drill holes, we drilled the top 2 holes.

Next came the hard part, of which I have no pictures. I stood, holding the heavy and awkward wall mount, while Justin screwed in the top two screws.

Once the top two screws were in, we screwed in the next two without needing to hold it up any longer. My arms felt like jello at this point.

Now, the struggle is the cords. We ordered a Roku last week, and that should cut down on some cords because it will allow us to stream. But the rest of the cords will need to be dropped/pulled through the wall.