Mounting a TV Above Your Fireplace

Yes, you can have a TV and a Fireplace in the same room! There will be safety measures you must take, depending on your home and fireplace set up.

Mounting a television to your wall can be a seamless process—as long as you do the prep work. When combining that with the logistical challenges of installing a fireplace, you might find yourself jumping through hoops on the road to creating a modern-contemporary living room.

Can I Hang a TV Over My Fireplace?

It’s a natural question when putting together a living room. Oftentimes, homeowners decide to make a fireplace installation the centerpiece of their living room. Others choose the entertainment staple that’s hung around since the last century: The television. One provides heat and ambiance, the other provides a direct line to entertainment.

But can you have it both ways? In short, yes! There are several factors to consider, but it is possible to have the best of both worlds.

Mounting a Television

Let’s start by considering the process of mounting a modern-day, flatscreen television.

It can be tempting to start drilling those holes, but you’ll need to do the proper research and buy the proper equipment before you begin; your tv can wait! You’re going to want a stud finder, to allow you to find the appropriate vertical points to securely mount your television. It’s inconvenient, sure, but you will have peace of mind when you watch your movies; instead of the subconscious fear, your tv will rip out of the wall at any given moment. If the wall isn’t comprised of the standard 16-inched-studded drywall, but concrete or brick—you’re going to need a few different screws and maybe an extra few minutes to mount your television. (NOTE: Double-check the factory box for your tv mount—it’s possible the manufacturer included the necessary tools for concrete or brick.)

Take in the Space

Before you go ahead with your plans, take a step back and get a wholesome view of the room. Is the layout suitable for a television? Test the viewing angle—even double-check the recommended viewing angles in the manufacturer’s tech specs—to see if a television set makes sense with the current living room setup. Before mounting a TV, some consumers shape an old cardboard panel into the size of their new display to “audition” the proposed placement. It might seem silly, but it’s certainly less painstaking than unmounting and re-mounting an awkwardly-placed flatscreen.

Now that you’re absolutely sure that the television suits the dimensions of your space, let’s consider the complications of throwing a fireplace into the mix.

Heat and Electronics

It’s really just one complication: heat.

Every television unit has recommended temperature limits in its listed technical specifications, which, if violated, can harm your television set and lower its life span. Therefore, the main concern in mounting a television above a fireplace, technically, is the function of the fireplace, itself.

So, let’s say you have a 55” LED Smart TV, and this newer model has an operating temperature of 32°F to 104°F. With that in mind, you need to be sure that the temperature in your dream television spot doesn’t approach 105°. To do this, fix a thermometer to the wall above the fireplace while it is running. As long as the thermometer is making contact with the wall, you can even use scotch tape to affix it.

Electric Fireplace

If you only want the contemporary look of a stacked tv-and-fireplace setup, then an electric fireplace will save you some grief. That’s because many electric fireplaces have heatless options. This means the manufacturer’s programmed a function in which the fireplace has the illusion of producing flames—with no actual heat emitted.

While this is a great option if you want a fireplace for purely aesthetic purposes, but if you still wish to have a fireplace to produce supplemental heat, an electric option may still be right for you. Electric Fireplaces many times will have options for the level of heat put out by the appliance, this way you can have a low amount of heat circulating in your room while still keeping both the television and fireplace at your room's center.

Wood-Burning Fireplace

You may not have guessed—but wood-burning fireplaces aren’t that problematic for television placement. That’s because generic wood-burning fireplaces send most of their heat through the connected chimney. This way, some heat may enter the room, but much less than other types of fireplaces, such as a wood-burning insert. Just to be safe, however, be sure to check the wall’s temperature above the mantel, before deciding to install your tv.

Wood-Burning Insert

A wood-burning insert lets out remarkably more heat than its ventilated counterpart. This feature, unfortunately, is also a bug—at least if you’re planning on mounting a television. It might be worth it to scrap your tv-mounting plans—or at least consider other options.

Direct Vent Fireplaces

These types of ventilated fireplaces produce a fair amount of heat, which could be harmful to your flatscreen. However, direct vent fireplaces come with the option of a blower, which, for an additional price, pushes the produced heat farther out into the room, away from a potentially mounted television. If your direct vent fireplace is already installed, it’s not too late! Some units allow you to add a blower as an aftermarket accessory, even after installation!

Ventless Fireplaces

The purpose of this type of fireplace is to circulate the air throughout your home, as there is no direct vent leading to the outside. So while this may be more productive for heating the space—it has the potential of being more destructive for your television. If you have a ventless fireplace, it’s best to consider other options.

Stop Heat From Reaching Television

Beyond choosing the right fireplace, there are other workarounds to getting your stacked TV-and-Fireplace setup.

Install a Mantel

Although a mantel is traditionally used as a shelf above the fireplace to place family urns, trophies, and other valuables; there’s much more utility than meets the eye. A mantel is a wood, marble, or stone piece that hangs above a fireplace—incidentally blocking the rising heat, potentially acting as a buffer between your heat-producing appliance and your heat-sensitive appliance.

Depending on the material involved, mantels can be as affordable as $200, or stretch into the thousands for specially-made stone pieces. The price of your mantel also hinges heavily on the size of the structure, as mantels can be a sole strip above the fireplace or wrap around the appliance entirely, as a way to tie the centerpiece together visually. Check out our Mantel Buyer's Guide for more.

Integrate the Television into the Room

This option is more for the interior decorators, less for the thermodynamic majors. There are a variety of ways to integrate your TV into its surrounding environment, which, almost incidentally, prevents heat from reaching the appliance. One common way for this is to set the television into a wall recess if your living room happens to have one. The effect of hiding the flatscreen into a wall recess is essentially the same as using a mantelpiece-as-buffer method.

If you have greater ambitions for your living room, you can also minimize the fireplace’s effects by hiding your television set behind accordion-style folding doors, if style permits. For a more high-tech solution, you can have a mechanized panel installed that hides the media center while not in use. These technologies have been in use since the 1990s, and have only gotten more accessible. Of course, if you do have accordion-style or remote-control doors, you will have to keep in mind that the fireplace and the televisions should never be concurrently in use—and this headache may not be worth the stacked setup, depending on the homeowner.

There are countless other ways to further blockade your television from your fireplace, such as framing your television set with built-in bookshelves, for a Victorian, intellectual style. As with all things home improvement, there are solutions and styles out there for any curious homeowners to discover.

Design Requires Compromise

Whether you’re inching the television screen high enough where the heat dissipates or using a heatless electric fireplace, you’ll find that compromise is often needed when a fireplace is in proximity to a mounted television. It’s up to the homeowner to decide when appearance overcomes inconvenience—or if it’s even possible at the end of the day.

Regardless of which option you lean towards, be sure to practice safety when designing your fireplace setup.

Looking For Your Next Fireplace?

Fireplace Deals’ inventory has dozens of design options for your perfect installation—whether you’re focused on a more efficient burn or having the most inviting centerpiece for your next family get-together. Browse our selection to learn more. Or check out the rest of our Learning Center for more Homeowner Resources. If you have specific questions send us an email or call at 866-848-3473 to speak with one of our NFI-certified experts.