Wall mounting a 40" TV in Expedit

Materials: Expedit TV Storage Unit, 2 - 1 1/2" Machine Screws with washers, locking washers, and wing nuts, 16 L-brackets and 1/2" wood screws, Drill, hole cutter kit, Samsung Ultraslim wall mount, and of course our Samsung 40" TV

Description: Just moved to a smaller house so our 40" TV that used to live on a wall needed and our books which used to live in its own library area needed a new home.

Enter the Expedit TV Storage Unit.

Unfortunately, the Expedit is advertised to only accommodate a 32" TV with its stand. Luckily for me, I've been lurking on IkeaHackers for a long time, so I used a little bit of what I'd seen on other hacks and came up with a plan.

1. Before buying Expedit, measure TV and measure Expedit TV gap to make sure it fits. It did, so the credit card was put down.

2. Assemble Expedit according to plans except for the first few steps where you attach the back of the TV compartment to the rest of the unit.

3. Assemble the two back pieces of the TV compartment on the ground and lay the TV face down. Use Tape Measure and Mark I Eye-ball to center the TV on the back, and use pencil to outline the TV. For our 40", this left ~1" of space around the entire TV. This will be the back of the panel, so you don't have to worry about anyone seeing the outline.

4. While TV is still laying down, attach Samsung Wall mount kit to TV. For those not familiar, this allows you to hang the TV like a picture using a wire and a couple of wall anchors. Place your fingers under the wire equidistant from the centerline of the TV and pull them towards the top of the TV. While holding the wire under tension, use the tape measure to measure the distance the wire has moved towards the top of the TV (H) and also the distance your fingers are from the centerline of the TV (W). Also measure the distance from the center of the wall anchors to the edge where wire will be resting (A). Remove TV and place in a safe place.

5. Find the centerline of the Expedit back panel and use the measurements (H+A) and (W) obtained in #4 to mark the location for each wall anchor, and drill holes as close to the same size as the machine screws.

6. Along the centerline of the back panel, somewhere in the middle of the TV outline, use the hole cutter drill attachment to make the pass-through for the wires. I made the hole from the back, but I would recommend flipping the back panel over and cutting the hole from the front because the last little bit of the cut will rip unevenly around the edge. Obviously not a big deal since it's covered by the TV, but I know it's there. :)


7. Attach the wall anchors to the back panel using the machine screws, washers, locking washers and wing nuts. The back of the back panel should now look like this.

8. Use 6-8 same sized items to approximate the distance the back panel should be inset from the front of the Expedit. I only had 4 cups of the same size which I originally had in the corners as pictured, but the back panel was sagging at the join, so I moved them to the middle of each of the sides. Lay the back panel face down on the cups (or whatever you're using)

9. Use the L-brackets to attach the back panel at the desired inset depth.

10. Stand the Expedit up. Run all the wires appropriately, because you won't be able to access it once the unit is fully loaded.

11. Realize that the 1" gap around the TV does not give enough room for you to actually lift the wire over and onto the wall anchors.

12. With the Expedit standing, unscrew all of the screws attaching the L brackets to the back panel.

13. Tilt the back panel forward enough at the top to put the TV on it and push the back panel back against the L brackets.

14. Have someone hold it in place as you go to the back and reattach all the L brackets to the back panel.

15. Finish hooking up all the wires, move the Expedit back against the wall and anchor it, and load it up with your books.

16. Bask in the electron glow of your Expedit mounted 40" TV.

~ Andy Kao, California, USA