This does not have anything to do with electronics but I thought someone might find it useful. I have a room in my house that has stucco walls. I recently had the walls patched and repainted. I wanted to mount my TV on the wall but I did not want to make any holes in my nice new walls. I found a way to do this using some "Ikea Hacking".
Update 2018-01-01
The Ikea STOLMEN posts are no longer available. There is a new product that is square-ish instead of round, called ELVARLI. It can serve the same purpose as STOLMEN except that is doesn't come with nice attachment brackets, so you'll have to fashion something on your own. Here is a link to the ELVARLI Post.
Original post below ...
I didn't invent this idea. I got it from some other sites but when I search now I can't find any good links to share. The idea is to use poles from floor to ceiling and then mount the TV to that. In this particular room of my house I have a wood ceiling and tile floor. I dont mind drilling some holes in the ceiling because if I decide to undo this installation, the holes will be barely visible once the screws are removed.
Ikea has some poles that I think work great for this. The product is called STOLMEN and is meant to be used for closet storage or something like that. Here is the link:
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/categories/departments/bedroom/19109/
Specifically, I used Stolmen poles and end fixtures.
The poles are meant to be screwed in on one end and friction mount on the other end. There is a rubber gasket that makes contact with the mounting surface. So I screwed the first end plate into the wood ceiling and then just let the other end sit on the floor. The poles are telescoping (like a shower rod) and have a screw on the bottom end that you adjust to make the pole tight against the floor. Here are a couple of photos:
I used an L-shaped metal rail to go between the poles. I found this at home depot. It seems to be called, unintuitively, "punched angle" in case you are searching for it. These rails have holes every inch so it is easy to mount stuff to it at any location along the rail. I attached the rails to the poles using the STOLMEN "end fixtures" and some bolts. Once I had the rails in place I was able to bolt the TV mounting plate to the rails. Here are some photos to help clarify:
Mounting rails and TV mounting plate
I used the same approach for surround speakers.
I just used some large-ish wood screws to attach the STOLMEN "end fixtures" to the top and bottom of the speakers. This did require me to drill holes into the speaker and those probably will be visible if I ever decide to undo this installation.
I ran the speaker wire down the back side of the pole where it is not visible from the center of the room. I secured it with zip ties and it is not really noticeable at all unless you look for it.
I am pretty happy with the way it turned out. And if I ever decide to remove it, it is completely reversible except for some barely noticeable holes in the wood ceiling. And no holes in the walls!
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