How high to mount a TV in the bedroom

In a living room the middle of the screen belongs near seated eye level, about 42 inches off the floor. Use that rule in a bedroom and the footboard, the duvet and your own feet end up in the picture.

Why bedrooms are different

You watch reclined. Your eyes are lower than on a couch but your line of sight points upward, over the end of the bed. The comfortable spot for the screen is therefore higher, and angled down toward the pillows.

A good starting point

• Centre of the screen roughly 50 to 60 inches from the floor for a bed of normal height.
• Tilted down 5 to 15 degrees, so the screen faces your head rather than the opposite wall.

A simple way to find your number

1. Sit or lie in bed the way you actually watch — propped on pillows, not flat.
2. Have someone hold a strip of painter's tape on the wall where your gaze lands naturally. That's the centre of the screen.
3. Check that the bottom edge clears the footboard and any dresser, with a few inches to spare.

Above a dresser

Many bedroom TVs go over a dresser. Leave at least 6 to 8 inches between the dresser top and the bottom of the TV so it looks deliberate and you can still use the surface. Centre the TV on the dresser, not on the wall, if the two disagree.

Tilt matters more than anywhere else

A flat-mounted TV high on a bedroom wall looks washed out on many LCD panels, because you're viewing from below. A tilt bracket fixes it for a small cost — ours is $59. A full-motion arm ($89) makes sense when the TV is in a corner or you also watch from a chair.

Size

Bedrooms are shorter than living rooms. A 43 to 55-inch screen suits most; in a large primary bedroom with the bed 10 feet or more from the wall, 65 works well.

Wires and devices

There's usually no cabinet under a bedroom TV, so think about where the streaming stick or cable box goes. A small floating shelf or a device mounted behind the TV keeps it tidy; in-wall power avoids a cord hanging down the wall above the dresser.

Light at night

Bright standby lights and a glowing screen opposite the bed bother some people. Most TVs let you switch off the standby LED in settings.

Bedroom mounts are priced by screen size like any other: labor from $94.