Wall mounting TV hiding wires with barn wood

Having trouble finding a way to hide your wires on your hanging TV?  Check this simple idea.  The problem…wall mounting TV hiding wires.  Solution…use barn wood.

Not ordinary barn wood.  This is Oklahoma wood.  During our last visit home, my wonderful uncle Russell collected old boards collected from our hometown.  In the past, Russell would have made several birdhouses from the found boards.  We have several of his birdhouses…and the birds love them.  As he’s gotten older Russel decided to pass down the barn wood to me.  I can’t tell you how happy these old boards made me.

Hiding the TV wires

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My pile of wonderful Oklahoma barn wood!

Below is Mike’s wonderful new TV in the master bath!

This is the situation I ended up with.  The TV mounted too close to the wall to hide the plug and cable wires.  Plus the holes from the old TV!

I measure the width of the TV, how far the front of the TV came from the wall, & how long down the wall I needed to hide the holes.  Mike was watching golf between my head and the measuring tape. 😀

Please note, someday I will repair ALL the holes…when we sell the house or repaint.

The front edge of the TV is 3 1/4 inches.  A 2 by 4 is 3 1/2 inches.  So I added a keyhole into pieces of 2 by 4 to easily hang on the wall.  Two will hang 3 1/2 inches out and the larger piece will hang 1 1/2 inches.  This keyhole router bit is reason enough to get a router!

I just happened to have two barn wood boards the lengths I needed.  But first I need to clean the wood.

Cleaning barn wood

• Using a mask I sanded the wood with a palm sander and 150 grit sandpaper.
• Next, hot soapy water and a brush cleaned the wood.
• After the wood dried, another sanding with 220 grit sandpaper smoothed the wood fibers.

Finish for the wood

The wood needed a richness after the bath and all the sanding.  I used a soft cloth and applied mineral oil to the wood.  This is the same stuff I use on my wood cutting boards.

Mineral oil is apparently also used as a laxative! :/

Now while Mike watched football, I hung the pieces of 2 by 4 on the wall.  Being exact wasn’t important.

Hiding cable wires with the first piece of wood

Then I nailed the longest board on the 2 by 4 pieces directly under the TV.

Hiding my old TV holes with the second piece of wood

The next board hangs just under the top board, nailed on the other 2 by 4 piece.

This was so easy and fast to complete.

Not a wire or electrical cord sight!

More creative ways to hide tv cords

Of course, my favorite is to keep the TV in a crate!  Check out this box

If your situation requires your wires to go inside the walls, I found this kit on Amazon to help!

If you don’t have a wonderful uncle to give you barn wood, try this idea to turn new wood into barn wood instantly.

Check the cornerstone post on how to distress wood.

P.S. Wonder if my son will be thrilled when I pass down old broken pieces to him?