Where to Put a TV When There's No Wall Space
Houses and apartments come in many different shapes and sizes. From open concept floor plans to more traditional-style homes with walled off rooms, every layout presents a unique challenge for a homeowner.
One particular challenge for homeowners and renters moving into a new place is where to put the tv. If you’re lucky, your home may have an obvious location against a wall without a window, but if you find yourself in a new apartment or home without obvious wall space for your tv, it can be difficult to discover the next best spot.
As experts on the best distance, height, and angle for tv-viewing, we’ve guided homeowners through almost every scenario when it comes to tv placement. If you find yourself in a predicament where you have no wall space for your tv, don’t worry, we have some great solutions for you to try so you can create the optimal tv-viewing experience regardless of your home’s unique layout.
Why It’s Important to Find the Right Location for Your TV
Believe it or not, tv placement is a bit of a science. From using the 8:1 ratio to determine furniture placement to calculating the best distance between the bottom third of your screen and the floor (trust us, it’s a real thing), there are a lot of things to consider when picking the perfect place for the family tv.
But why? As you can probably guess, the placement of your tv can make or break the picture quality and your comfort while viewing the tv. Consider this: when we walk into a movie theater, there’s a reason we take so much time to choose the perfect seat. Maybe you head straight to the back row or you find comfort closer to the screen. Either way, deciding where to sit in a movie theater is a critical component of watching a movie. We want to be comfortable.
At home it should be no different—especially considering the average person in America watches 411 hours of tv per month and so much of that tv is consumed while binge-watching. Simple adjustments like finding the right height for your tv on the wall or the right distance from your furniture can improve tv picture quality, in some cases, by 200%.
3 Possible Scenarios When There’s No Wall Space
You may have already identified your unique problem within this post, like an open concept room, or maybe a small living room in an apartment where the only available wall space sits above a fireplace, placing the tv too high. But here are some additional possibilities you may be facing and 3 viable tv solutions for no wall space.
Problem #1: Where to put a tv in a room with lots of windows.
A home or apartment with a lot of windows is a great find. But a lot of windows can pose a problem for art placement and the placement of your tv. Some things to consider when choosing where to put a tv in a room with lots of windows is picking a spot that doesn’t create glare on the screen. Putting the tv’s back to a south-facing wall, if possible, will help reduce glare. But if you’re worried about squinting because you, the viewer, are facing the direction of the most sun, pick a western or eastern facing wall. There may be different times of day when your screen has a glare, but you can add blinds or a curtain if it becomes a problem during the day.
The other issue you run into when choosing where to put a tv in a room with lots of windows is blocking a potential view. The truth is, sometimes you can’t avoid it. If you truly have no wall space for your tv, you may have to pick the best (worst) view to partially block. You can offset this by purchasing a tv on the smaller side or investing in a tv that lowers into a piece of furniture.
The Solution: Place your tv in front of a south-facing window to reduce glare or choose an east or west-facing window, avoid a north-facing window. Purchase a smaller flat screen tv to minimize the obstruction of your view or invest in a tv lift or a tv that can lower into a piece of furniture, out of view.
Problem #2: Where to put a tv in a small living room.
Another issue that homeowners and apartment-dwellers face is just not enough space. Period. If you live in a condo or a tight apartment in an urban environment, it’s not unusual to run into a situation in which the reason you have no wall space for a tv is simply because your living room is too small.
The Solution: Sometimes, the fix for this problem occurs upstream with the purchase of the right tv for your space. If you already own the tv you intend to use, choosing a tv mount that can articulate and tilt can help you overcome the space issues you face in terms of square feet. MantelMount makes a great model for flat screen televisions of any size and the pull down motion and pivot capabilities make it possible to position your tv into the best spot while you’re watching and out of the way when you’re not.
Problem #3: Where to put a tv when you’re an art lover.
If you love art, it can almost be soul-crushing to make room for a tv. But, if you love art to the point that you don’t have any free wall space, it might be time to thin out your collection. There’s is something to be said though, for those art lovers who figure out a clever way to incorporate a flat screen tv into their home.
The Solution: The best thing to do, if you don’t want to sacrifice your art collection, is to incorporate your tv into the art. The Samsung Frame TV is a great option for the art lover if you can’t get away with forgoing a tv all together. What’s better is if you can recess your tv mount into the wall so the Frame sits flush with the wall. This will make your tv essentially disappear into the art in your living room.
Of course, if you already have a high-def tv for your home, a MantelMount pull-down tv mount will allow you to position your tv into the perfect viewing-position—in front of your art collection—and up and away when you simply want to enjoy your art. Again, you can take your tv set up to the next level and recess your MantelMount so your tv protrudes just as far as the picture frames in your collection.