If you are anything like me, you don’t like when your wires are showing. Some people have absolutely no problem with it, but I am one of those people that is oddly particular about the weirdest things. After updating my cave rock accent wall, I liked the clean look without having a media console. I also didn’t want to see the wires dangling to my cable box. So, I found a DIY hack to be able to hide my cable box behind my TV!

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This is a quick solve to hide your cable box / wires. If you want to try behind-the-wall wiring, then check out my blog post about that!

STEPS FOR THIS DIY HACK

First, check out my video on YouTube for a brief overview if you are more of a visual learning. Don’t forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel! 

This is where I was at after I had finished my awesome modern cave rock accent wall (yes, my cat watches TV). I had no where to put my cable box, but I obviously couldn’t leave it hanging. If you haven’t seen my awesome rock wall project, then you can check it out here!

Wall Mount

To start, you want to figure out how you are going to be holding up your cable box behind your TV. They have a lot of different options. Some people get paper organizers and place that behind their TV. The main thing is to get one that is big enough to fit your cable box. I went with one that was basically Velcro straps because I have a rock wall. So, it’s not as easy to place a box or something up against a rock wall.

They provide you with a bar to attach to the wall to use to mount your cable box, but my TV mount just happened to have slits that were the same size as the Velcro straps. So, I just used my TV mount to mount the cable box.

I used wire organizers to help keep all the cords tidy. Feel free to check out my organization tab on my recommended products page for some more of my favorite items I use to keep things organized!

IR Extender

Now, when it comes time to pick out the IR extender you want to use, they have wired IR extenders as well as wireless.

The nice thing about wireless is that you don’t need to have the IR extender connected to the cable box or whatever else you are trying to connect it to. These little devices communicate with each other. So, you can have it hidden within a cabinet and they will still be able to talk to each other!

The other options is wired. So instead of fancy technology to communicate without wires, they have the IR emitters and IR receivers connect to the same box through wires to help them communicate!

Because I am cheap, I went with the wired option. However, I am no expert in IR extenders, so here is the article I read to figure out which one to buy.

Setting Up the IR Extender

When it comes time to connect the IR extender, you can either use a plug to power it through a standard outlet or you can power it with a USB that plugs into the back of the TV. I am lucky and I had an outlet right there, so I used the outlet.

To get it set up, you take the IR emitter and plug it into the distribution block.

Then, you remove the adhesive cover and stick the IR emitter onto where the IR sensor is. I had to look up where the IR sensor was for my Xfinity cable box because it wasn’t obvious.

Then you connect the IR receiver to the distribution block.

And remove the adhesive cover so you can attach it to a place on the TV that will have a direct line of sight to the remote (see red arrow in picture below).

The nice thing about the one I bought is they give you 4 IR emitters so you can connect 4 different devices to be controlled by that one IR receiver. I plan to connect my sound bar next!

Finally, I tried it out to see if it worked and it did!

That’s all for this quick and easy DIY hack! Subscribe to my emails below and subscribe to my YouTube channel for more!