How high should a 42 inch TV be mounted in a bedroom?

When you're viewing a movie or binge-watching your favorite series, you want the experience to be as realistic and enveloping as possible. If you've ever craned your neck to view a screen that's too high or struggled to look at low screens, you'll know how much TV screen placement can come between you and the action.

Table of Contents Show

Basic Placement Height for Most TV Screens
How to Mark Optimal Height of a TV on a Wall
Fine-Tuning TV Screen Height and Placement
Seating Options
Number of Viewers
Type of Viewers
Room Obstacles
Size and Type of Screen
How high should a TV be in a bedroom?
How high should a 43 inch TV be from the floor?
Should TV be higher than the bed?
What is the best TV height for wall mounting?

Learning how high to mount your TV or other type of screen is the first step toward comfortable, immersive viewing. Experts recommend that the middle of your TV should be at eye-level while seated. This equates to about 42 inches from the floor to the center of your TV.

As with other things, you'll find that there is a general rule that can be applied to most, but not all, situations. For ideal screen placement, you can take the additional step of finetuning screen height to your own situation.

Basic Placement Height for Most TV Screens

It's easy to quickly determine and place your TV screen if you're happy to go with common recommendations. These guidelines apply to wall-mounted screens of any size up to 85 inches diagonal.

The optimal TV screen height that applies to most screens and settings is 42 inches high, measured from the floor to the center of the screen.

Tip

As the screen increases in size, the distance between the bottom edge of the screen and the floor shrinks. So, it's good to be mindful of this in terms of larger screens and for viewing distance.

How to Mark Optimal Height of a TV on a Wall

Once you know the height that you'd like to mount the TV on the wall, you'll need to mark this on the wall.

Use the standard 42-inch center height recommendation and measure upward from the floor to the bottom edge of the TV screen.

Screen Class (Diagonal) Screen HeightDistance: Floor to Bottom of Screen43-inch22 inches31 inches50-inch25-1/2 inches29 inches60-inch29-1/2 inches27 inches75-inch37 inches22 inches85-inch42 inches20 inches

Another method is to measure the actual eye level of users and match that to the center of the screen.

Run one strip of low-stick painter's tape from one corner of the screen to its opposite diagonal corner.
Run a second strip of tape across the two remaining corners. The intersection of the two strips is the center of the screen.
Have a family member or friend representative of the average height of viewers of your screen sit facing the screen.
From behind the viewer, set up a laser level facing the wall. The beam should cross the back of the viewer's head at the approximate level of that person's eyes. For safety, the beam should remain behind the viewer and the viewer should never look at it.
On the wall, raise or lower the TV screen until the laser line and the center of the screen meet.

Warning

Never look into a laser line. Laser levels can permanently damage your eyes.

Fine-Tuning TV Screen Height and Placement

Going beyond the blanket recommendations for TV screen height, it's possible to fine-tune height and placement for specific rooms and viewers.

Seating Options

The 42-inch standard for screen placement height is based on the assumption that viewers will be seated 15 to 20 inches above floor level on a couch. Rooms styled as home bars may have higher seats in the 28- to 30-inch range. If most of the viewers will be seated at a bar, you may want to raise the screen height by a few inches.

Number of Viewers

Commercial theaters with a large number of people raise the screen level so that everyone can see. The same idea applies to home viewing. If lots of people will frequently be watching, you may want to raise the screen's center to 50 inches or even more, even if this is above eye-level for some viewers.

Type of Viewers

Taller or shorter viewers have different eye levels. A room that's used primarily by adults watching sports should have a TV mounted at 42 inches center or higher. A room used mostly by kids or by viewers who like using the floor more than the couch should have a TV mounted at 42 inches or lower.

Room Obstacles

Obstacles may determine the height of the TV screen more than viewer preferences. Fireplace mantels that are 50 or 60 inches high dictate high TV placement. If you mount the TV above a TV stand or console, you will want the TV to be well above the height of the surface.

Size and Type of Screen

When a TV or movie screen is exceptionally large, attempting to mount the screen at eye level is difficult. It becomes more a matter of equally fitting the screen between the floor and the ceiling.

A 150-inch diagonal projection screen has a 74-inch-high viewing area and its total height is 84 inches. Fitting a screen of that size in a room with a conventional 8-foot-high ceiling leaves just 18 inches of room: 9 inches on top, 9 inches on the bottom.

Even a more conventional 100-inch screen has an overall height of 50 inches, leaving only 46 inches to be split between the top and the bottom.

How high should a TV be in a bedroom?

A 42-inch television should be placed approximately 55 inches from the floor to the TV center, a 55-inch television should be 60 inches, a 65-inch television should be 65 inches, and a 70-inch television should be mounted about 67 inches from the floor to the center of the screen.

How high should a 43 inch TV be from the floor?

Experts recommend that the middle of your TV should be at eye-level while seated. This equates to about 42 inches from the floor to the center of your TV.

Should TV be higher than the bed?

Make sure to mount a TV in the bedroom slightly higher than you would a TV in your living room, so that when you lounge and lay down on your bed, you won't have to strain your neck to watch the screen.