How high should you mount a TV?

The simple rule: center of the screen at seated eye level

Comfortable viewing means your eyes look straight ahead, or very slightly down, at the middle of the picture. Sitting on your usual spot, have someone measure from the floor to your eyes. That number is where the center of the screen should land.

Measure the screen itself, not the diagonal size on the box. Height is what matters. Take half of the TV's height and subtract it from your eye-level measurement to find where the bottom edge of the screen will sit. As an illustration only: with eyes at 42 inches and a TV that measures 24 inches tall, the bottom edge lands at 30 inches.

Mounts do not all hang the same way. The bracket's mounting holes sit at a different spot than the top of the TV, so mark the wall from the TV's center line and the mount's own instructions, not from the top edge.

Living room

Most living rooms are watched from a sofa or sectional, and sofa seats are low. Eye level on a sofa is usually lower than people expect, which is why a TV hung "up high like a picture" so often causes neck strain. Measure from the seat you use most, not from standing height.

If the room has several seating spots at different heights, such as a sofa and a counter stool, favor the place where people sit the longest and use a tilting or full-motion bracket to help the others.

Bedroom

In bed you are leaning back against pillows, so your eyes are usually higher than they would be on a sofa, and the TV often ends up higher on the wall than a living room TV. Sit up in bed the way you actually watch, measure to your eyes, and check the line of sight to the screen.

A bedroom TV also tends to be viewed from a slight angle off the center of the bed. Tilt or a swivel bracket makes that easier to live with. If a dresser sits below the TV, leave room above it for the bottom edge of the screen and the cables.

Above a fireplace

A fireplace mantel usually pushes the TV higher than the eye-level rule suggests, so the goal becomes getting as close to comfortable as the wall allows. Tilting the screen downward reduces the angle you look up at, and a pull-down style mount such as a MantelMount can bring the screen down to a more natural height when you are watching.

Height is not the only consideration over a fireplace. The wall surface, the heat the fireplace gives off and where the cables can run all matter, and brick or stone changes how the mount is secured. Our fireplace service page covers those questions in detail.

• Check the TV maker's guidance for heat before mounting above a fireplace you use.
• Look at the whole setup, not only height: surface, bracket, cable path and clearance.

When tilt helps, and when it does not

A tilting bracket lets you angle the screen down a few degrees. It helps when the TV has to sit above eye level, because it points the screen back toward your eyes and cuts glare from windows and lamps across the room.

Tilt does not fix a TV that is far too high. If the screen has to be tilted a long way to face you, the better answer is to lower the TV, even if that means choosing a different wall position or a different bracket.

Let the wall have a say

The perfect height can land in a spot where there is no solid framing behind the wall. A TV has to be fastened to something solid, so the final position is a compromise between comfortable height and where the wall can safely hold the mount. Our guides on mounting a TV on drywall and on plaster walls explain how that works for each surface.

Prefer to skip the measuring?

When you book a Twin Cities installation, we look at the seating, the wall and the cable path together before anything is drilled. Tell us your TV size, wall type and where you sit, and the height gets planned around how you actually watch.