Hello hello! Some people say I’ve jumped the gun, but what can I say.. I LOVE CHRISTMAS. Always have, always will. Sooo in addition to hanging our mantle and mounting our TV (!!!) we decorated for Christmas this past weekend.
You may have seen our living room before and after post, but it’s been a while, so here is a picture of our living room BEFORE:
As a reminder, our living room reno included:
- tearing up the carpet
- replacing the baseboards
- scraping the popcorn ceilings & retexturing
- installing new laminate flooring
- painting the walls
- installing built in bookshelves from ikea (read how here)
- adding grey-washed shiplap
For about a year or more, our TV sat on top of the lower cabinets. As y’all know, the fixer upper projects never end, and we really focused on our home exterior this summer. (still working on the landscaping!) So, we kinda took a break from indoor projects for a few months. I really wanted to have a mantle hung by Christmastime so we could hang our stockings this year.
Originally, I had planned on building a mantle myself, but honestly, I think it might have looked a bit chintzy if I would have DIY’d it. I had my eye on this mantle for over a year, and about a month ago I finally just ordered it! Ryan had no clue that I ordered it, and he was so surprised when it showed up on our doorstep lol.
I’m kicking myself because I don’t have any pictures of the actual process of hanging the mantle or TV! Hanging the mantle was fairly straightforward, but mounting the TV was not so easy. Well, I should say the actually act of mounting the TV was easy. Hiding the cables, however, was more difficult than anticipated.
The cables for the TV actually run behind the shiplap, and the plug is located in the wall behind the lower cabinets. What you can’t see in these photos is the large hole in the drywall behind the shiplap, ha!
If you don’t care about the technicalities, you can skip the next paragraph 😉
Typically, wall studs are 2×6’s spaced at 16″ o.c. That is true for our house. However, sometimes there are horizontal lateral braces between those 2×6 vertical wall studs. These horizontal wood members made it impossible to run wire down to the floor, because they formed a blockage. Ryan used a video scope to locate the horizontal members, and he ended up cutting into the drywall so he could easily drill a hole in those wood members. It took some time, trial, and error, but eventually the cables were able to run behind the shiplap, between the wall studs, to the outlet behind those lower cabinets.
Below is the mantle and the TV mount we used.
There are two things I’d still love to do to this space:
- Add cushions to create a sitting area below the mantle.
- Install trim work and crown moulding to enhance the “built in” appearance. Right now there are gaps between the wall and the ceiling – I’d like to have that gap closed.
For now, I’m really happy with how this space turned out for Christmas. 🙂 The lower cabinets are great for storing board games, small seasonal decor, pillows, etc.
On another note, red cups are back at Starbucks and I’m reeeeally excited about it! 🙂 Thanks so much for reading. Happy decorating!
