The guides
Four plain-English walkthroughs covering the choices that make a mount safe, comfortable and tidy. Read them in order, or jump straight to the one you need.
Guide 01
Picking the right bracket
A bracket is far more than a piece of metal — it shapes how the television lives in the room for years to come. Three main types exist, and the best fit depends on where you sit and how light travels through the space.
Flat (fixed) brackets
These hold the screen tight and parallel to the wall. They're the slimmest and most straightforward, with the fewest parts to work loose down the line. They're ideal when seating faces the screen head-on and glare isn't an issue. The catch: there's no adjusting the angle afterwards, so you have to get the position spot-on first time.
Tilting brackets
These let the screen angle downward a touch. That's handy when the TV has to sit higher than you'd like — over a fireplace, for instance — because the tilt aims the picture back down toward seated viewers and tames reflections from ceiling lights and windows.
Full-motion (articulating) brackets
Arms let the screen pull out, swivel and tilt. They're the most adaptable choice, and they earn their keep in open-plan rooms or kitchens where you watch from several positions. They also cost more, weigh more, and apply far more leverage to the wall — which raises the standard your fixing points have to meet.
Confirm the VESA pattern first
Every television and bracket speak a shared language called VESA — the spacing of the mounting holes on the back of the screen, measured in millimetres (200×200 or 400×400, say). A bracket only works if its range spans your TV's pattern and its weight limit clears your screen. Both figures live in your TV's manual.
Guide 02
Understanding your wall
It's the wall, not the bracket, that genuinely carries your television. So before anything else, figure out what you're drilling into and where the strong points lie.
The walls you'll meet
- Solid masonry or brick. Trustworthy even for heavy screens, provided you use plugs and fixings suited to the material.
- Stud partition (plasterboard over a timber or metal frame). The board itself holds next to nothing; the weight has to land on the studs behind it.
- Concrete. Extremely strong, but it calls for the correct drill bit and anchors — and occasionally a pro's kit.
- Panelled, tiled or hollow walls. Approach with care; what hides behind the surface changes everything.
Hunting down solid fixings
On a stud wall, a stud detector helps you pinpoint the timber or steel uprights, which usually sit a set distance apart. Anchoring into two studs shares the load and stands up to the leverage a swinging arm creates. On masonry you have more latitude, but the plug still has to suit the brick or block.
Before the drill bites: what's hidden?
Walls carry electrical cables and sometimes pipes, often running straight up from sockets and switches or along the top near the ceiling. A combined cable-and-pipe detector costs little and heads off a dangerous mistake. If you can't be sure what sits behind the plaster, stop and ask a qualified tradesperson.
Guide 03
Height & placement
By far the most frequent slip-up is hanging the TV too high. A screen positioned to flatter the wall feels wrong to the people in front of it, leaving necks tipped back for hours on end.
Begin from your seat
Comfortable viewing puts the middle of the screen roughly level with your eyes when you're settled in your usual spot. In most living rooms that seated eye line falls somewhere around a metre to a little above the floor — so the screen's centre often sits lower than your gut tells you.
Measure it, don't eyeball it
- Sit where you usually watch and note how high your eyes are off the floor.
- That measurement is your target for the centre of the screen.
- Work out where the top edge of the TV lands, and mark the bracket position from there.
- Hold a paper template or the bracket itself against the wall and sit with it for a moment before committing.
When it has to go higher
Over a fireplace, or in a bedroom watched lying down, eye level simply isn't on the cards. That's precisely where a tilting bracket pays off — angling the picture back toward you so the geometry still works.
Watch for glare
Take note of where windows and lamps fall. A screen set opposite a bright window will battle reflections all day long. Sometimes nudging the TV over a little, or adding a tilt, fixes a glare problem no picture setting can touch.
Guide 04
Cable management
A spotless mount is undone by a knot of wires dangling below it. Good cable management is mostly forethought — deciding how power and signal will travel before the screen ever reaches the wall.
On the surface (tidy and undoable)
Paintable trunking or a slim raceway carries cables down the wall inside a channel you can colour-match. It's the easiest tidy route, leaves no permanent damage, and pops open again when you add another device later.
Inside the wall (cleaner, more work)
Threading cables through the wall gives the most seamless look, but mains power must never run behind a wall on ordinary extension leads. Concealing power the right way means a properly fitted outlet behind the screen — electrical work that, in many places, should be carried out or signed off by a qualified electrician. Low-voltage signal leads (HDMI and the like) are more forgiving, though they still need cable rated for in-wall use.
Leave yourself room to work
- Keep a little slack so a full-motion arm can swing without yanking a plug.
- Label the cables wherever several gather, so future-you isn't left guessing.
- Bundle and fasten with reusable ties rather than taping everything flat.
Where DIY ends
If a clean finish hinges on new mains wiring or a fresh outlet, that's your cue to call in a professional. A neat cable run is never worth an electrical risk. Our safety page lays out the full picture.
Still mulling it over?
The FAQ tackles the questions people raise most once they've read the guides.