Hidden TV Picture Frame

My mother always hated the look of the TV in her living room, so she asked me if I was able to do something about it. This is the final result of the inappropriate and experimental use of wrong material and poor planning.

Nevertheless, I am pretty satisfied with the results, and it is has been holding up for 4 years. But if I had to redo this project there are things that I will do differently for sure (more on that later).

The concept was to have horizontal sliders to move a panel in front of the TV away from it.

In order to achieve the needed extension range, I came up with the system depicted in the image.

The slider is attached to the left half of the panel (picture in this case) and free to slide to the right.

The slider itself is attached to the right half of the wall mount (piece of wood) which allows the slider to move to the right.

So half of the movement is the picture frame sliding on the slider and the other is the slider itself sliding on the wall mount.

Probably doesn't make any sense, and the fact that English is not my first language is probably not helping :)

The concept on paper seemed easy and elegant, but it's when you have to build it is a whole different game.

I was hoping to easily acquire linear "half-open" bearings, two rigid steel shafts, weld them together (profile will look like an 8) and attach the bearing to each side and to the mount/picture.

But my budget and local hobby shops changed that plan a little.

I ended up using the double-sided curtain slider as a shaft and bolts with nylon washers as bushings/bearing.

The system worked but is not as stiff as I wanted it to be, so when eventually it will stop to work I will re-visit the linear bearings options.

The wall mount consists of only two horizontal pieces of pine wood screwed above and under the wall mounted TV to which the slider mechanism is attached to.

This first seemed sturdy enough, but now it is "sagging" a little and a simple side box frame would have solved the problem.

Another thing that I would change is to use an intermediary panel between the slider system and the picture frame (currently screwed together) so that you can easily change the picture and change the look of your living room/ do maintenance (WD 40 on the nylon washer every 3-4 months).

That's all, I wish I had more picture of the building process ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Have a nice day,

Chris