How to make a niche for TV from drywall with your own hands

Recommendation points

• Design problem: how to fit equipment into the interior
• Mount and load from the TV
• Assembling the frame
• Niche trim and trim

Hiding the TV in the wall partially or completely would be a good solution, especially if there is already a system of shelves, niches, or a false wall that hides communications. We propose to consider the main options for hidden installation of household appliances and instructions for their implementation. Let’s talk about how to make a niche for a TV out of drywall with your own hands.

Design problem: how to fit equipment into the interior

Many are familiar with the Yugoslav walls with a niche for installing a TV or an aquarium. Television sets of that era, unlike modern panels, were massive, dimensional and could only be hidden in a furniture cavity of the appropriate depth. Despite the fact that today the recess in the wall for the TV is more of a decorative than a functional purpose, both the design side of the process and the design.

In the vastness of the world wide web, you can find countless images of concepts, but it is one thing to create a visual design, and quite another to complete its technically correct implementation. In the simplest version, a classic niche is proposed, the back wall of which is either a load-bearing wall with a minimum layer of finishing, or a plasterboard surface with a minimum, again, indentation from the rough plane.

A niche with a duration from ceiling to floor is otherwise called a portal and has a slightly different construction scheme. Such designs make it possible to implement the idea even when the walls do not have a continuous leveling sheathing. At the same time, the portal looks like a completely finished and independent element of the interior..

The portal is flanked by two wide columns. You can choose absolutely any form factor: it does not affect the functionality in any way, but in the end, a niche with a complex configuration may take a significant amount of time to align, smooth and finish.

Unlike primitive imitations of rectangular pilasters, more complex columns can have curved front or side faces. It is also possible to radially design the rear plane of the niche, such designs are called exedra, and TVs are rarely installed in them in a hinged way. In a niche or portal, as in the framing columns, an arbitrary number of smaller niches or shelves can be cut in for the installation of a home theater and other equipment or household items.

Mount and load from the TV

Although modern television equipment has become more compact, it has remained rather massive. This must be taken into account when assembling the niche frame in order to reliably strengthen it in the right places..

Typically, TV panels are mounted on hanging brackets at a height of 100-120 cm from the floor. Such an installation does not require the installation of a reinforced shelf, due to which the portal as a whole looks quite light and discreet.

Otherwise, it is possible to use a standard TV stand to install it on a horizontal plane. This option is not very attractive due to the fact that there is almost no way to rip off the TV from the hanging bracket, but with a free installation it is quite easy to overwhelm even a small child.

Mounting the TV panel on a plasterboard wall has certain requirements that relate to both the internal configuration of the structure and the fasteners used. Only one thing can be said with certainty: the TV model and the type of the mounting bracket must be known in advance at the design stage. Depending on the mass of the vehicle, an adequate method of strengthening the rear plane is selected. Someone prefers embedded profiles directly in the place of fastening, others are limited to two-layer reinforced cladding.

Mount the bracket according to the instructions. For reliability, at least four attachment points are used

Of the fasteners for mounting equipment weighing 30 kg or more, a metal dowel “umbrella” and a mount called “Hartmut” are well suited. Note that if there is a brick or concrete wall behind the back plane of the niche with a minimum offset of the false wall, it is better to fasten it with bolted or chemical anchors. A guarantee of reliability is good, because no one knows how the fastener will behave after several years under various operating conditions.

Assembling the frame

Unlike other popular designs, a niche or a portal for a TV has a special assembly specifics. As in most cases, the frame consists of a main part and supporting curly elements that have no other function than shaping..

The basic set of profiles for creating a frame of almost any shape. CW and UW profiles are used to form the base, CD and UD to reinforce the planes on which the drywall will be mounted

For curved shapes, it is better to use a special curved profile that can recreate the bend of the correct shape

The assembly of the main part begins with the installation of guide profiles. Since niches are rarely performed with a depth of less than 60–70 mm, the most suitable profile size for adequate load capacity is 50 mm. At least four vertical rows of guides are nailed to the rough plane of the wall, or, if the solid cladding has already been made, to the profiles hidden behind the drywall. In the latter case, the wall section for the niche should be reinforced with horizontal crossbars every 40-50 cm – to them, the recruited structure is attached.

All profiles directly in contact with the main wall, floor or ceiling must be glued with a damping tape made of polyethylene foam

At the very bottom of the niche, it is necessary to mount a small podium, which in the plan will protrude beyond the rest of the structural elements. Its height is purely symbolic – up to 10 cm, and its purpose is to ensure the correct installation of the floor plinth. When using stretch ceilings, a similar design can be useful in the upper part.

For lateral columns, if they are straight, the guide profiles are duplicated in the opposite position to those already fixed on the wall. Fixed length jumpers are inserted between them to determine the depth of the cut. For the smallest niches, the second group of guides is simply put into the first.

If the columns have a curved face, the second row of guides is made with a segmented profile. Before installing it, you need to cut out the side segments of the sheathing, fold the drywall in four layers and walk along the common marking line with a jigsaw. After sewing the sidewalls along their edge, a flexible profile is scrolled, in the simplest case it is a self-made “herringbone”.

It is a little more difficult to make curved side faces: both groups of guides should be made with a flexible profile, and it is attached to the wall according to the marking line, which, in turn, is formed by tracing a template cut out from the gypsum board with a pencil. It will subsequently be used to sew the front face, but first you need to screw a flexible profile around the perimeter of the seamy side. The fastening of the structure is carried out, as in the general case, on distance inserts.

Profile connection options. 1. Connection by means of bent “wings”. 2. Use of the connecting “crab”. 3. Special insert for profile extension. 4. It is best to connect the profile to each other using a cutter

The space between the columns forms a niche that can be divided by a shelf for installation, or have a reinforced back plane. In the first case, the frame is assembled in the same way as for columns: two profile lines connected by jumpers. If the shelf is slightly recessed, a pair of uprights will be required for a more rigid support. It is also imperative to tighten the structure with braces, therefore, loaded shelves are usually sheathed to the floor, hiding the details of the frame.

Reinforcement of the rear wall is performed by the counter-lattice method applied from the rear side of the frame, repeating the step of installing the vertical posts. Here it is allowed to use a 60 mm wide ceiling profile, however, profiles in both directions must be fixed to the wall with straight hangers..

Before stitching the frame, route the power and lighting cables, television wires and twisted pair cables inside the cavity of the frame. If the conductors used are not self-supporting or armored, they must be wrapped in a corrugated sheath. The loop of wires should not be attached to the frame – only to the wall, while at the exit point the wire is folded into a loop and laid in such a way that it can be easily reached through the hole for the socket installation box.

Niche trim and trim

In conclusion, a few words about finishing. The cladding does not have any special specifics, all work is carried out by analogy with the installation of multi-level ceilings or arches. Drywall for sheathing curved surfaces must be prepared by soaking or making cuts on the outside of the bend.

In the case of television niches, the requirements for the protection of joints and corners are the most stringent. General structural reinforcement with nonwoven fiberglass webs is also encouraged. Choose a paint with a pronounced antistatic effect from the options for finishing the internal cavities. For practical reasons, horizontal shelves of any size should be covered with thin glass of the appropriate size.