How High to Mount a 55 Inch TV

A smaller screen with room to spare

A 55 inch TV is about 48 in wide and 27 in tall. Centered at 42 in, it occupies the band from 28.5 in to 55.5 in off the floor, which leaves plenty of wall above it and enough height below for a low media cabinet. On a bare wall there’s nothing to work around: mark the center line, find where your mount’s bracket sits relative to the middle of the TV, and hang it.

From a seat 10 ft away, the top edge of a 55 inch screen at eye level is only 6° above your line of sight. That’s well under the 35° limit for the top of a screen, so the picture never asks you to tip your head back.

Over a dresser in the bedroom

In a bedroom, a dresser under the TV is what pushes it up. With its bottom edge just above a 36 in top, the center rises to 49.5 in and the top to 63 in. Seen from 10 ft away, that center is 4° above your eyes, a small tilt that sits comfortably inside the 15° guideline. A taller dresser or an armoire sends a bedroom TV higher still, and there a tilting mount helps by angling the screen down toward you.

If you watch from bed, your eye height is different from a sofa’s. Sit up the way you watch, measure from the floor to your eyes, and enter that in the calculator instead of the 42 in average.

Even a mantel stays within the guideline

Because the screen is short, a 55 inch TV can sit on a mantel line and still stay within the comfortable angle from a normal seat. With its bottom at 56 in, the center lands at 69.5 in and the top at 83 in; from 10 ft away, you look up 13° to the middle of the picture. The bottom edge could go as high as 60.5 in before the center passes 15° from that seat.

The heat is the bigger question. Some TVs aren’t meant to go over a fireplace or near any heat source, so check the manual for your model before you plan a TV above a working fireplace.