What height should you mount a TV on the wall?

Why eye level is the only measurement that counts

Sit on the sofa as you normally would and measure from the floor to your eyes. For most adults on a normal sofa that comes out somewhere between 100 and 115 centimetres. The centre of the screen should land at that height, not the centre of the wall and not the top of a sideboard that happens to be standing there.

This is different from the old habit of mounting a TV as high as possible to keep it out of the way, which came from CRT sets on furniture rather than screens fixed to a wall. Looking up at a screen for an evening strains the neck in a way that is easy to ignore at the time and obvious the next day.

If more than one person watches from different seats, take the average of the eye heights rather than the tallest or shortest person in the room. A few centimetres either way rarely matters once the screen is large enough and the distance is right.

How far back the sofa should be

Distance and height depend on each other, so work out distance first. A rough rule that holds up well for modern LED and OLED screens is one and a half times the diagonal for a comfortable viewing distance, so a 55-inch television (about 140 centimetres diagonal) wants roughly 2.1 metres between screen and sofa.

In a standard panel flat living room, that distance is often fixed by the furniture rather than chosen freely. If the sofa is pushed against the opposite wall and the room is only 3.5 metres deep, a very large screen bought for a bigger room will sit too close, and the viewer ends up tilting the head to take in the edges.

Once distance is set, the viewing angle from eye level to the top of the screen should stay under about 15 degrees. At 2 metres that puts real ceiling on how high the top edge can sit, which is usually lower than people expect before they measure it.

Living room and bedroom call for different heights

A living room sofa puts the eyes at sitting height, so in a typical Tallinn panel flat living room the screen centre sits around 100 to 110 centimetres from the floor, with the sofa 2 to 2.5 metres back for a 50 to 55-inch set. That is noticeably lower than most people guess before they check.

A bedroom is a different problem, because the viewer is lying down or propped against pillows, so eye height is much lower and further from the wall than the floor measurement suggests. For a bed against the opposite wall, a screen centre of 70 to 85 centimetres is often closer to right, and it is worth measuring from an actual reclining position rather than guessing.

In a smaller bedroom, an adjustable tilting bracket earns its price, since it lets you correct for the fact that lying-down eye level changes with how many pillows are behind your head that particular evening.

• Living room, 50–55" screen: centre at 100–110 cm, sofa 2–2.5 m back
• Living room, smaller room or 65" screen: centre closer to 95–100 cm to avoid a steep angle
• Bedroom facing the bed: centre at 70–85 cm, measured from a reclining position
• Bedroom with a corner-mounted set: allow for the sideways viewing angle as well as height
• Shared households: use the average eye height of the regular viewers, not the tallest

Tools and steps to take before you drill

You will need a spirit level, a tape measure, a pencil, a stud finder if the wall is timber-framed or plasterboard, and a drill with masonry bits if the wall is concrete or brick, which is common in older Tallinn buildings. Mark the eye-level height first, then hold the bracket against the wall to mark the fixing points, checking with the level before anything is drilled.

Sit on the sofa or bed with a helper holding a large piece of cardboard cut to the screen size against the wall, and adjust the height until it looks and feels right before committing to a mark. This ten-minute step catches the mistake of a screen mounted a little too high far more reliably than measuring alone.

Check what is behind the wall before drilling: sockets, pipework, and in panel flats sometimes electrical conduit set into the concrete. A cable detector is worth the small cost if you are unsure, since drilling into a hidden cable is a much bigger job than mounting a television.

When it makes sense to call someone in

Working out the height and distance is something any reader can do with a tape measure and a bit of patience, and that part is worth doing yourself. Where it gets harder is a genuinely solid concrete panel wall, an awkward corner mount, or a bracket that needs to carry a very large or heavy screen securely.

If you would rather not drill into a load-bearing panel wall yourself, or you want the bracket and cable routing done properly the first time, TV wall mounting is one of our jobs, from 65 € for a standard fitting. We also fit shelves and mirrors at the same visit if you want a console or floating shelf under the screen, charged at 39 € per hour.