Mount Mate started in 2021 as a scrappy notebook of TV install tips we kept texting to friends. Five years and 32 chapters later, it is the plain-English Mount TV setup guide — written so the next person doesn't have to call us, or anyone.
"We wrote the chapter we wish we'd had on our first install. Then we wrote thirty-one more."
The first chapter we ever wrote was a text message to a friend.
March 2021. A mate was trying to hang a 55" Samsung over the breakfast bar in his new flat. He'd watched four YouTube videos, bought the wrong bracket twice, and was three hours into a job that should have taken one. He texted us a photo of the wall at 9pm. We replied with a five-paragraph rundown of where the studs were likely to be, what bracket to swap to, and the order to do everything in.
He got the telly up the next morning. Then he forwarded our text to two of his friends. Then they forwarded it. Within a month, we'd written the same five paragraphs out about fifteen times. By the end of the summer we'd put it all in a tidy little site — illustrated, with a checklist at the end — and the comments started filling up with people who'd done their own install using it.
That's the whole story. The site grew chapter by chapter, every one of them written in response to a specific question that landed in the inbox. "What about above a fireplace?" became chapter 02. "Can I hide cables in an apartment without an electrician?" became chapter 03. Five years later, there are 32 of them, and one new one most months.
We're still just two — Tom and Mara — and we still write everything ourselves. We don't take sponsorships from bracket manufacturers, we don't run ads, we don't collect emails to sell. The guide stays free because that's the only way to make sure the advice in it is honest.
The four editorial rules every chapter sits inside. We've turned down good sponsorship money on each of them, which is how we know they're not just decoration.
We describe the spec — VESA pattern, span, weight rating, fixings — and let you buy from wherever you like. Zero affiliate links anywhere in the guide. We make nothing from your purchase, which is the point.
If your wall, fire, or telly is one we'd walk away from, the chapter says so — and tells you who to call instead. Never drywall alone, never a gas fire that runs too hot, never a screen too heavy for the studs.
If a chapter uses a term that needs a glossary, the term gets a footnote in plain English. VESA, ARC, eARC, lath, joist — none of them are scary once they're explained without ten paragraphs of preamble.
Every chapter has a "last refreshed" date at the top. Anything older than 18 months gets re-walked, re-photographed, re-fact-checked. If a code changes or a bracket goes out of production, we update — we don't quietly leave the old advice up.
One of these two wrote the chapter you'll read first. We trade off the writing depending on whose specialism it is; whoever wrote it is the one who answers in the comments under it.
co-founder · writes the wall chapters
Carpenter by trade before turning to walls. Specialises in fireplaces, masonry, and the older buildings with plaster-on-lath. Writes the structural and bracket-selection chapters.
co-founder · answers the comments
Reads every question that lands. Writes the cabling, swing-arm, and setup chapters — and the diagrams. The reason a reader question never sits unanswered for more than 24 hours.
Refreshed end of every month, straight from the dashboard. We never round these up — partly because we don't need to, partly because it would feel weird.
No plans to put it behind a paywall, sell sponsorships, or hire a team of staff writers. Once you start selling brackets in the same chapter that recommends them, the advice stops being honest. If anything ever changes here, you'll read it at the top of the homepage first, in writing.