Case Study: A real North London TV mounting job in a Highgate Living Room
Every North London home has its own quirks, and this Highgate living room was a good example of why the One For All Full Swivel mount has become our most requested bracket in the area. Here’s how the job actually went, from the first look at the wall to the final swivel test.
As the customer has opted to remain anonymous, names have been changed for privacy, but the property, wall type, and install process are all real.
The Brief
Sarah, a homeowner in a Victorian terrace near Highgate, had treated herself to a new 55-inch TV. As a way to save space, she decided that she wanted to mount it on the wall and so she bought the One For All full swivel mount. Like some of our customers, she hadn’t picked the mount at random; a friend of hers had one installed a few months earlier and recommended both the bracket and our installation service.
Her request was simple: she wanted the TV mounted beside the chimney breast, angled so it could be watched comfortably from the sofa on one side of the room and from the kitchen doorway on the other. A fixed mount wouldn’t have worked for that. This is exactly the kind of layout the swivel mount is built for.
What We Found Behind the Wall
This is the part that often gets missed when people plan a DIY install. The wall Sarah wanted to use was:
- Original lath and plaster, typical of Victorian terraces in this part of North London
- Slightly uneven, with a section that had been patched at some point during previous renovation work
- Positioned close to original coving, meaning drilling in the wrong spot risked cracking decorative plasterwork
A full swivel mount puts more leverage on its fixings than a flat mount, because the TV extends away from the wall when it’s angled. On a wall like this, that means finding a genuine stud or noggin to anchor into, and not just drilling into plaster and hoping for the best.
How the Installation Went
Our installer’s process on the day looked like this:
- Surveyed the wall using a stud detector to map out solid fixing points around the patched area, and to steer clear of the coving.
- Checked TV compatibility with mount. This was a formality, as we install this mount so much; we know what it can handle.
- Marked and drilled. On this occasion, as Sarah wanted the TV in a particular position, we had to rely on the appropriate wall plugs as there were no studs or noggins where we needed to mount..
- Mounted the bracket and ensured that all the fixings were secured to an appropriate tightness
- Attached the TV and ran the cable in trunking to a nearby socket. The power lead that came with the TV wasn’t long enough, so we had to use a longer power cable
- Tested the full swivel and tilt range, checking the TV held its position at full extension before calling the job done.
Total time on site: just under an hour, which is typical for a single TV mount.
The Result
The TV now sits flush against the wall when not in use, and swivels out comfortably enough to be watched from both the sofa and the kitchen doorway, which was the whole point of choosing a full swivel mount over a fixed one. Sarah didn’t need to compromise on where the TV went, and the fixings are rated well beyond the weight of the screen, so there’s no flex or wobble even at full extension.
Why This Job Is a Fairly Typical North London Install
We’re including this case study because it’s genuinely representative of most of the swivel mount jobs we do across North London. The details vary from job to job. Sometimes it’s a stud wall in a converted flat, sometimes it’s solid brick, but the underlying pattern repeats:
- The customer has already chosen the mount, often on a recommendation
- The wall isn’t a simple, modern plasterboard-on-stud setup
- A proper survey before drilling is what determines whether the install is solid or shaky
If your living room has a chimney breast, an older wall, or a viewing angle that a fixed mount just won’t solve, this is likely to be a familiar situation.
Get the Same Result in Your Home
If you’ve got a TV that you’re ready to see go up on the wall, and you don’t quite trust the level of DIY skills in the household, then we’d be happy to help.
Get a quote for TV mounting with Flat Pack Ninja →
Curious why this mount is so popular locally in the first place? Read our full guide: Why North London Homeowners Keep Choosing the One For All Full Swivel Mount.