Wood Plank TV Wall

Wood Plank TV Wall

We built a wood plank TV wall as our solution to hiding electronics cords! It was an easy DIY project that could be done in just a weekend!

At our last house, our living room had vaulted ceilings with a brick fireplace that was the perfect focal point of the room. It made it easy to know where to center the furniture and was the perfect starting point for holiday decorating.

I’ve struggled a bit more with our new living room. As part of our renovation, we tore down 7 walls. While I love the open concept, it left me with a gray wall that extended from the front corner of the house the whole way to the back corner.

It just was such a loooong wall of nothing but pale gray. It’s also the wall that our TV is on. To be honest, once the renovations were done, we just plopped down a TV stand and never really did much else.

I couldn’t stand the open back that showed all those cords, so I never even put much of an attempt into decorating it. I knew I wanted to do something to break up the long expanse of pale gray, and until I decided what, I just didn’t care to fiddle with anything else on this wall.

I love dimension on walls like the board and batten we added to our foyer/mudroom. It just adds so much character as opposed to just painting a flat wall. I also like planks because of the depth it adds, but didn’t really want them stained because there are already enough wood tones going on in this room.

When I saw this fireplace surround from Thrifty Decor Chick, I knew I wanted something very similar. I liked the idea of a bump-out from the wall, since it added dimension to my long, flat wall. I also loved how it not only hid the cords, but it also hid the wall mount for the TV.

It was purely coincidental that our paint colors ended up being so similar. Last year, I painted our basement and French doors this deep gray from Sherwin Williams. While I loved the way they looked, they didn’t seem to flow very well with the room, because nothing else was that color. Painting the TV wall the same color really helped it all blend together. Plus, I still had over half a gallon left so score for not having to pay money for more paint!

How to Build a Wood Plank Wall

• 2×4’s (how many you need depends on how wide your wall will be)
• Corner molding
• Crown Molding
• Paint

Start by screwing your 2×4’s into the existing studs in your wall. We used the 3″ screws, drilled in at an angle to attach them to the existing studs. You’ll need to do as many of these as you want your plank wall wide.

(Obviously I took this picture a few steps in, but it still gives you an idea of how we attached the studs and cut them around the baseboard)

Decide where you want your TV mount to be and cut the studs to allow room for that. We used scrap wood to build the mount out from the wall so that it would make the mount flush with the new plank wall. This will really depend on the type of mount you buy.

Make sure you use a level when you’re on the TV mount step. That would be pretty frustrating to go to all this trouble and end up with a crooked TV!

Because of where our outlets are in this room, we cut a circle in side of the outer stud to pull our cords through.

We placed the power strip in the bottom of the wall knowing we would be cutting an access hole in the planks so that we could always reach it. This really depends on what type of stand you will have in front of it if you will be able to cover this hole. The other options is to keep the pieces of planks you cut out and turn it into a “door” that attaches with hinges to hide it.

Then we pulled the cords up through the TV mount and taped them in place so they wouldn’t fall as we were working. We really did do all this before we started screwing the planks in, but I wanted to show you a picture with the planks so you could see that access hole we cut out for the power strip.

You can also see in this picture how we bumped out the electrical outlet so that it would be flush with the new wall.

Attach your planks to the new studs using the 1.5″ screws. We attached the front pieces first, being sure to cut around where the TV would mount and any electrical outlets.

Then attach your side pieces, corner molding and finally the crown molding to finish it off.

Use the wood putty to fill any nail holes. Tape it off using a quality painter’s tape.

And start painting! We had to use a brush and a roller because of the grooves in the planks. It went very quickly, though! Only took about 45 minutes for one coat of paint! The plank kits that I link to in the supply list are stain-grade, if you wanted the look of a stained plank wall instead.

One thing I do want to point out is this finished picture before we started painting. Do you notice anything that makes you scratch your head?

The TV mount is very off-center. We wanted our TV mount to be attached to the original studs in the main wall. That meant that the mount wasn’t centered on the wall. But we chose a mount that we could slide the TV left to right a few inches on, so in the end the TV itself is centered even if the mount isn’t.

We LOVE the way it turned out! It was exactly what this room needed to add a defined focal point!

Now I just need to make some artwork for the empty space above it, and we can call this room done! We had a pine garland hanging there for the holidays, and I loved the way it looked!

Be sure to PIN this post, because I just know that you’re looking around your house trying to find a spot for it! I’m currently trying to convince my husband we should build one for our bedroom and add sconces for over our nightstands!

Original article and pictures take www.aturtleslifeforme.com site