Inspiration for Frame TV Knock Off
I've never been a fan of having a big TV dominate the look of a living room—especially in an open-concept space like mine, where it can easily become the unwanted focal point. For years, we avoided the issue entirely by keeping our TV in a separate little room. But when our son came along, that cozy TV nook transformed into his bedroom, leaving us streaming shows on my 13-inch laptop screen. Something had to change.
Our Brief & Disappointing Encounter With A Real Frame TV
We had talked about splurging on a frame TV for at least two years. We finally decided to get one and I got started on my little gallery wall to go around the TV. I got my Ikea frames together, found some of my old watercolor paintings and painted a few new ones.
We were so excited when we finally got the TV home and up on the wall! But that excitement quickly turned to frustration and disappointment. We would have to spend more money to get a different color frame/bezel, none of the free artwork on the TV went with my watercolor paintings and I couldn't get the color of the mat to match the ones on my Ikea frames.
The worst part? It wasn’t even user-friendly. I wasn’t prepared for—or interested in—any kind of learning curve with a TV. I had imagined simply selecting a beautiful, free watercolor painting, clicking a button, and having it display effortlessly whenever the TV was off. That definitely wasn’t the case."
Our Solution
Spending $1,400 on a TV that we weren't happy with and would need to spend more money on didn't sit right. The same night we got it home and up on the wall we took it down and packed it back into the box to be returned the following day.
We decided to buy a cheap 32" TV, cut a small hole in the wall so the TV could go a bit farther back and screwed two long, black screws into the wall to hang a picture on infront of the TV.
Materials For Our Budget Friendly Frame TV DIY
This might be the easiest project we've done and one of the smallest material lists as well!
- Drill to screw the screws into the wall
- 2 long screws
- A picture frame that is larger than your TV. We used the Ikea LOMVIKEN frame in gold color
- Artwork to put in your frame. I had some large watercolor paper so I made my own painting. If you don't want to do your own you can order a poster or print from amazon, etsy or any other online poster/print retailer
The Process
Step.1 Decide on the size of TV you are going to use if you don't already have one
Step.2 Select a frame that is slightly larger than the tv
Step.3 Map out your gallery wall and get all of your frames and artwork together. This is optional you could just have the one large frame with artwork over the TV
Step.4 We cut a hole in the wall and recessed ours a bit, depending on the depth or your frame and TV this might not be necessary
Step.5 Mount your TV on the wall. Make sure to hide the tv's power cord by taking it behind the wall and making a hole near the outlet to pull it through and plug it in
Step.6 Put the two screws into the wall near where you want the top of the frame to line up
Step.7 Hang your picture over the tv and just remove it and put it beside the tv while you're watching it. We put some electrical tape over any areas on the back of the frame that could scratch the tv if it rubbed up against it.
Final Thoughts...
This is one of my favorite DIY's! I love how the finished gallery wall looks. I love that I don't see a TV unless we're watching it. I love that the room didn't have to be designed around a TV but instead the TV designed around the room.
Cost I REALLY love how cheap this project was. When it was all said and done after returning the frame TV and buying the new TV, frame & screws we'd saved over $1000 doing it this way. Our 32" smart tv was around $200, frame $35, screws $10 bringing our total to less than $300!
If you're a cheapskate like me and can’t stand the look of a big TV, this budget-friendly DIY might be just what you need!
