DIY TV easel
I’ve had my tv in the bookcase since we moved in two years ago. 5 meters away from the sofa… It works fine, we don’t watch a lot of tv anyway and often I just grab my laptop when I want to lounge on the sofa watching something. But lately I kept thinking wouldn’t it be nice if the tv was closer to the sofa. To be able to cuddle up on the settee with a blanket, a bowl of popcorn and watch a movie without having to miss lots of the detail or drag chairs over to the bookcase to watch something in comfort. I could of course hang the tv on the wall but then the tv would be the first thing you see when you walk into the room and it will be stuck in one place. All this had me thinking…
Have a look at the solution I came up with!
Love how the tv easel turned out! And it is so lovely to be able to wheel the tv over to the sofa when we want to watch something an have it sit in the corner of the room when we don’t use the tv. The build was easy to, have a look below at the cut list and wood I used. My 32” tv is 75x46 cm and 7 cm deep, this easel will work for most tv’s but if yours is a lot bigger make the stand a bit wider .
My tv easel design, our rough drawing :)
The base is made from planed smooth timber 18mmx44mm you need 2 pieces of 60cm and 1 piece of 37.2 cm
The upright stand is made from planed smooth timber 34mmx34mm you need 2 pieces of 81 cm
The upright with the track for the clamp is made from the 18mmx44mm timber, you need 65 cm for this
the clamp is made from scrap pieces of wood that are 15 cm long, the clamp needs to be around 8cm deep
The tv plank is 22mmx70mm and 46cm long. Front of plank from a thinner piece of wood but also 46cm long
The second plank is 20mmx140m and is 39.2 cm long (46cm -2x thickness of the stand). Plus a thinner piece of wood of 39.2cm for the front
You also need a 5cm long bolt (mine is a 6m) with two washers and a wing nut
4 wheels, mine have a 4x4cm base plate and are 7cm heigh
You can see the build in the video but find some additional measurements below.
-Start you build by making the base, you can see in the video I used dowels to connect the pieces of wood together. The middle piece sits at 40 cm from the front.
-Build the upright frame by attaching the top piece to the back of the upright pieces. You then attach this to the base. You want to have the upright on 40cm from the front , on the same height as the middle piece of the base.
-Attach the tv shelf to the upright on 50 cm from the base. Add the thinner piece of timber (I used a piece of skirting board) to make the upright lip for the tv to sit behind. My skirting board is 5cm heigh. I countersunk the screw holes so they can be filled later.
-The second shelf sits 13cm below the tv shelf and sits in between the uprights, glue and screw in place. Add the front piece of timber with wood glue and a few nails.
-The 65cm upright will have the track for the clamp, mark where your tv will sit. My tv is 46cm heigh so I made a 10cm long track starting 11cm from the top. I used my router to make the track, several passes on different depths to make the hole but you could use your drill or drill and jigsaw to make this too.
-Screw the track piece in place, this is to the back of the tv shelf and in front of the top upright of the frame (you can see this in the video and on my drawing above)
-Make the clamp, 3 pieces of wood of 15cm, as seen in the video. Make sure the overall depth of your clamp is slightly deeper then your tv depth but not by too much. I used another piece of skirting board,15mm thick, for the front piece so it all looks uniform, a plank of 60mm wide for the middle piece and a plank of 10mm thick for the back piece. I added felt to the inside of the clamp so the wood won’t damage the edge of the tv.
-Drill a hole in the middle of your clamp 5 cm from the top. Insert your bolt and washer
-Put the clamp through the track that you made and keep it in place with another ring and wing nut.
-Attach your wheels to the base of the easel
-Fill any screw holes, let dry, sand the filler smooth and give the tv easel one final sand.
-Stain or paint your easel if you like or leave it as is
Wish I made the tv easel sooner, it is so handy! And Kiki’s cute picture still fits in front of it. It rests on the tv shelf and a little bit of blue tag on the clamp keeps it from falling off. I could rest it on the easel properly but that means opening the clamp and removing the picture every time I want to use it.
I made the easel completely from materials I had in my garage but if you would need to buy timber I recon you can make this easel for around £30 a bargain!
Love how the easel looks in the living room too, it ads character without being the focal point of the room. What do you think? Love the tv easel too?
Pin the image below to safe the tv easel tutorial for your next buiding project
