Hanging a much prettier Flat Screen (aka: How to watch TV without having to look at a mess of cords)

We hung our flat screen tv awhile back, and while we love that it's mounted, we didn't love all the nasty, ugly cords hanging down.
Before we mounted, our Flat Screen was a safety hazard, just waiting to topple over onto an unsuspecting house guest. Not to mention, it took up a lot of space since it had to be on an angle b/c of the large TV stand and the fireplace.


After we hung the TV, all the cables necessary for the TV to function draped down our fireplace. Not a pretty sight.


So we ran the cables along the mantle over to the shelf where the Cable Box and DVD player are.


Then we took down the TV and drilled a large hole in the wall in an area that we knew would be hidden by the TV (have the vacuum handy, b/c there will be lots of paint and drywall dust)


Do the same on the side wall of the fireplace (over by our brown shelf) or whereever you want the cords to come back out.

Straighten a wire hanger and make a hook on the end of it. Grab a skein of yarn and a heavy bolt. tie the end of the yarn into the bolt (do not cut the yarn off the skein, just leave it all attached), chuck the bolt through the hole by the tv. It will hang down into the wall. Going in through the other hole, use your wire hook to snag the bolt and pull it back out the other end.

When you are ready to thread the cables through, you might want to consider doing them in sets of 2-3 at a time. Tie the skein end of the yarn to the ends of the cords and carefully pull the bolt end until the cords come through the other side.
Untie the cords, plug them in, pull on the skein side of the yarn to thread some of the slack back up towards the TV and start again with the next set.

You can purchase outlet covers that are basically a big circle so that it'll look nicer. That's what we did :)

Here's our after, and no, we had not yet dealt with the cables of the left of the fireplace yet ;)