Wall mounted TV without a wall?

April 22, 2009 4:58 PM

Wall mounted TV without a wall: I need a stand that I can bolt my 37'' LCD TV onto, but don't want to give up my current credenza. I'm looking for something narrow and "L" shaped that will get the TV into the air while simultaneously fitting into the space between my credenza and the floor.

A previous question got at some of the same issues, but it wasn't quite resolved. I know I've seen something similar to what I'm looking for, but after scouring Google and Apartment therapy, I've come up short.

posted by aladfar to home & garden (7 comments total)

I'm a little vague on exactly what you need, but check out the stuff made by Ergotron.

They're pricey but I use a bunch of them on the machines I design and they stand up to people on a factory floor beating them up.
posted by Confess, Fletch at 5:03 PM on April 22

If you removed the shelves from this, it sounds like exactly what you need. It appears to be widely available.
posted by dersins at 5:08 PM on April 22

Googling "tv floor stand" returns lots of stuff that sounds like what you want.
posted by orme at 4:35 AM on April 23

Wanted to have a 42-inch about 10 inches off the floor and about 10 inches out from the wall. Built two T-shaped legs and attached them to a wall mount (attached to the TV). Used oak boards and heavy metal angle brackets. The relatively short vertical 1 by 4's bent under the load, which forced me to prop up the front of my "stand." What I'm getting at is that there is going to be a large bending force on your vertical support, so make sure it's very sturdy.
posted by RichardS at 4:37 AM on April 23

Floor Stand! I was typing in terms like "TV Mounting Stand" and similarly obtuse phrases. Still, those results aren't quite what I'm looking for - I'd like something with wood construction that better compliments my existing furniture. But, given the requirements for a thin column and a base that can fit beneath my credenza, that might not be structurally possible (as evidenced by RichardS' experience above).
posted by aladfar at 10:55 AM on April 23

Use 3/4" square tubing to build a simple frame. Two legs straight up to what ever height you need your mount and two cross bars to make a box at one end the size of your mount. Assuming your mount is a few inches wide you can then take a sufficiently wide 1" actual thickness board and route two parallel 3/4"wide deep grooves in the back side of the board to set the steel into. The board only has to come up to the lower cross bar as your tv/mount will cover the rest. If your mount is wide instead use two narrow boards. The board/tubing sandwich can be attached directly to the back of your credenza at the top and bottom giving it ample stability. Bonus stiffness if you epoxy the steel into the board. This is essentially how large mirrors are supported above dressers.

Total thickness would be just an inch. You could shave that further with a thinner board as the channel could be routed such that the wood covering the steel could be paper thin. Or you could build up the wood with a few boards (one on each side and one in the middle and use a thin veneer to cover the whole width.

For something thinner still you could go with 1/2" tubing but you might find you need several uprights.

Or you could use a sheet of 3/4 plywood the width of your credenza of an appropriate wood to match. That way you'd end up with wall-plywood-credenza and their would be no gap.

Or make a solid wood frame that matches the shape of the back of you credenza with the steel/wood sandwich mount coming out of the centre. That would make your credenza stick out into the room an extra inch but nothing could drop behind it. If you made the frame sturdy enough, say 4" boards, the frame might be strong enough to support the TV and you wouldn't need to attach the support to the credenza if that is of concern. The mass of the credenza would keep it pushed up against the wall.

The key thing is that it's your credenza that is supporting most of the tipping load of the TV. Also the bending moment on the frame of the stand is greatly reduced because it can only act on the distance between the top of the credenza and the mount rather than the distance from the mount to the floor.

Further if you don't need the adjust ability of the mount you could just bolt the TV directly to the stand.
posted by Mitheral at 1:11 PM on April 23

You could make your own from 8020.
posted by Confess, Fletch at 3:29 PM on April 23