TV on the wall – how to hide the cables?

Tan­gled cables behind the TV look unsi­gh­tly and can be dan­ge­rous. Hiding cables means, among other things, pro­tec­ting aga­inst chil­dren and ani­mals that might catch on tan­gled cables and throw the TV set off. In such a situ­ation, a torn-out elec­tri­cal soc­ket is the least of your pro­blems. In this article, we have put toge­ther a hand­ful of tidy tips on how to hide your TV cables.

A duct or gro­ove in the wall

Carving a gro­ove in the wall is an apt solu­tion if you’re looking for ideas on how to hide your TV cables in the wall of your new home. In the case of an alre­ady func­tio­ning wall, this would requ­ire deep chip­ping off the pla­ster and reap­ply­ing it. The com­bi­na­tion of old and new pla­ster will stand out. If you have no cho­ice but to chi­sel off the pla­ster, you can opt to paint the sec­tion of the wall that has been re-pla­stered. As a result of such inter­fe­rence, cracks may appear on the wall in the future. The mesh pla­ced under the pla­ster will help to reduce these cracks and streng­then the struc­ture.

Does the size of the gro­ove mat­ter? Ide­ally, it sho­uld be as small as possi­ble, but it sho­uld be no more than a deci­me­tre wide. Its depth has to be big eno­ugh to insert cables com­for­ta­bly. The hole where you place the cables inside the wall can extend from the TV to the soc­ket. Regar­dless of the length of the chan­nel, make sure it has a ven­ti­la­ted inlet and outlet to avoid over­he­ating of the cables.

Hiding cables in the wall

You can use a cable duct made of PVC tubes to hide cables pro­fes­sio­nally in the wall. You can install the chan­nel your­self, but it’s bet­ter to ask an elec­tri­cal service for help. An expe­rien­ced fit­ter will know how to shor­ten the cables and will pro­fes­sio­nally per­form all the neces­sary service work to eli­mi­nate the risk of elec­tric shock. In order to hide cables, you can also use cor­ru­ga­ted pla­stic pipes. Such pipes allow for easy hiding of cables inside, and the moun­ting foam will ensure their cer­tain faste­ning in the wall.

Hiding cables without chi­seling the wall

Dril­ling or chi­selling into walls can destroy the deco­ra­tion that is alre­ady there. To aesthe­ti­cally hide TV cables, you do not have to destroy the wall. A prac­ti­cal solu­tion is to cover the cables with panels or other mate­rial. You can cover the whole wall with new mate­rial, change its deco­ra­tion, or – if you are not ready for reno­va­tion – cover only a nar­row frag­ment, where the cables run. To cover the whole wall, struc­tu­ral deco­ra­tive panels, wooden panels, or their che­aper ver­sion made of MDF clad­ding are per­fect. The space between the wall and the panel is suf­fi­cient to hide pro­ble­ma­tic cables.

Masking TV cables on the wall

The use of a cable cover is very conve­nient and aesthe­ti­cally ple­asing. Hori­zon­tal or ver­ti­cal masking of han­ging cables is prac­ti­cal and pre­vents them from tan­gling. The cable cover is easy to install and usu­ally opens easily. It also keeps the hid­den cables easily acces­si­ble, which is a huge advan­tage if you need to get to them to replace them or add cables for a new device like a set-top box or aerial. In most cases, the masking strip can be pain­ted. The question often ari­ses as to whe­ther it is worth masking the cables from the TV. It depends on your expec­ta­tions, but we think it is a great idea for the aesthe­tics of the inte­rior.

Cable orga­ni­zer

In the elec­tri­cal indu­stry, orga­ni­zers are a fairly sim­ple and uni­ver­sal solu­tion. They do not requ­ire any addi­tio­nal work – it is eno­ugh to hide the cables inside. When cho­osing an orga­ni­ser, you sho­uld be guided by its size and the mate­rial from which it is made. These must be safe mate­rials inten­ded for elec­tri­cal instal­la­tions, which will not melt or ignite. A great advan­tage of orga­ni­zers is that they do not requ­ire an expert to install them, and easy access to the wires is a guaran­tee of conve­nience. They can be pla­ced on the floor or any­where where they will not be visi­ble. In the K-Pre­mium series, we use a patent that refers to the orga­ni­zers – our cable guide lifts toge­ther with the TV, so loosely han­ging cables do not distract you while wat­ching your favo­rite reality shows.

Cable ties

If your TV comes to solo, without addi­tio­nal acces­so­ries like a con­sole or recor­der, you might just want to clip the cables toge­ther using cable ties. Popu­lar tights are widely used for tidy­ing up elec­tro­nics. They are also usu­ally made from non-con­duc­tive mate­rials. Tights can also be used to attach cables to fur­ni­ture or a TV lift – we use this idea on many of our TV lifts, such as the Roto­lift.

Cables hid­den in fur­ni­ture

A TV cabi­net with a cable panel or gland is a great way to hide not only your cables but also your TV. Our K-Eco TV lifts are ideal for fit­ting into the fur­ni­ture. So the cables are invisi­ble and the TV doesn’t col­lect dust when it’s not in use. The only thing you have to remem­ber when buil­ding fur­ni­ture is to fix the lift well and leave ven­ti­la­tion holes.

Cables in the other room

Depen­ding on the room, the TV may be atta­ched dif­fe­ren­tly and have a dif­fe­rent pur­pose. If you have a TV in the kit­chen or bath­room, you sho­uld take care to pro­tect it from moisture. In the living room or bedroom, it’s a good idea to run the cables pri­ma­rily to achieve a good visual effect. You can fasten an exten­sion cable to the wall direc­tly behind the TV or go a step fur­ther – if you need to run cable TV or aerial cables to a neigh­bo­ring room, for exam­ple, run them thro­ugh a hole in the wall. This inva­sive solu­tion works espe­cially well if the wall in question is not a thick load-bearing wall. You can hide the cables in fur­ni­ture or an orga­ni­zer in the other room, and pla­ster the front part of the wall, cover it with ply­wood or pla­sterboard.

Wire­less con­nec­tion

Many of the extra devi­ces you con­nect to your TV also have ugly cables. Cables for your set-top box, spe­akers, or other audio equ­ip­ment that are part of your home the­ater can be orga­ni­zed using one or more of the above methods. Howe­ver, con­si­der if your equ­ip­ment allows you to con­nect to your TV using modern wire­less tech­no­logy. Also in our lifts, we use a conve­nient and relia­ble Wi-Fi module – K-SMRT, which allows you to con­nect wire­lessly to the devi­ces of your smart-home instal­la­tion. Ano­ther conve­nient con­nec­tion is Blu­eto­oth tech­no­logy.

Design from cables

Expo­sing power and antenna cables can be an oppor­tu­nity to get cre­ative. Cables can be glued to the wall, cre­ating a cre­ative pat­tern. Such deco­ra­tion is a labor-inten­sive acti­vity, but for a true artist, even the wiring can be the mate­rial from which to cre­ate a real master­piece.