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Mounted TV and Corner Floating Shelf

Ever since flat-screen televisions became a hit during my college days (2003-2007), I have always wanted to mount one of them in my living room.  I think that dream grew even more the longer we spent living in rental units (no holes allowed).  We waited a couple of years to tackle this project in our home, just because we wanted to be certain we liked having our TV in that spot before making it permanent.

One of the only “before” pictures I could find of the old corner TV stand. Thankful I take so many pictures of Winnie!

The wall mount I chose came from Home Depot.  I can’t remember the exact specifications, but I know it was easily capable of handling our 50″ LED screen.  Installation was fairly simple.  I just needed to find the wall stud then put two lag bolts into the wall.

The floating shelf design is something I just came up with from materials I had sitting around from the banquette project.  I used a couple of pieces of 2×6 for the wall bracket and two pieces of 3/4″ plywood for the shelves.  I wanted the front of the shelves to match the angle of the TV, so took some careful measurements before cutting.  Each shelf is simply screwed to the 2×6 using 3 wood construction screws.  Very simple design, yet surprisingly sturdy.

The one problem with using plywood: the edges aren’t very pretty and don’t get much better with paint.  My solution was to buy some small pieces of trim wood that were 3/4″ wide.  See photo below:

One final requirement of my “wall-mounted TV with floating shelves” dream was to hide the cables between the TV and the cable box/game system.  I did this by cutting holes in the wall and installing fancy wall plates for cables.

Look!  No Cables!

The finished product:

Lifesaving Tool

Improving our home is an important part of my life.  But so is living my life.  With that in mind, I want to take a quick moment to talk about a tool that I believe all handymen should own.  It’s a voltage detector.  The small device does one thing very well: it detects electricity.  However, more important than simply detecting power, it accomplishes this without the need for direct contact.  Simple proximity to a current will make the detector light up and start beeping.  This means I can hold the tip up to a wire or light switch and it will tell me if I will die by touching it.  Here’s a quick video showing how it works.

OSHA, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, reports Electrocutions are the third highest cause of workplace deaths, behind falls and being struck by an object.  The organization reports an average 81 electrocutions each year in the workplace.  While far fewer people are exposed to the danger of working around wiring in their own homes, the Consumer Product Safety Commission still shows there were 354 electrocution deaths caused by consumer products between 2002 and 2009, including 15 deaths caused by “household wiring.”

Electrocution Deaths 2

If protecting your life isn’t enough of a miracle, the voltage detector I happen to own, by Milwaukee, also comes with a flashlight.  Flashlights rule!  You can never have enough around when you’re working on stuff. IMG_1840[1]