But don’t downsize your TV just yet. Living in a condo with limited room doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice your 60-inch plasma for a 16-inch TV, it just means you need to use your space efficiently. And according to Candis Lane, a designer with Versatile Building Electronics, when it comes to housing a television in a small space, mounting your TV on the wall or ceiling is the way to go.

In fact, moving your TV from the floor to the wall or ceiling can result in a cool installation that will not only free up some room in your small space, but also increase your condo’s resale value – and cool factor.

Rod Moysey General Manager of General Audio agrees, “There’s a certain magic to having a TV hanging off your wall in mid-air,” he explains. “It’s cool, for lack of a better word, and obviously takes up much less room so you can mount them in a lot of places where you wouldn’t want to put a regular TV – especially in a smaller room.”

But mounting a TV isn’t as involved and expensive as you might think especially if you’re armed with the right knowledge. And although the best time to start thinking about where and how to install your television is during the building process, both Lane and Moysey say you shouldn’t worry if you’re beyond the building stage and need to retrofit your television mount – it can be done without much fuss.

The first thing you’ll need to decide is whether you want to mount your television on a wall or on your ceiling.

Wall Mounting
When it comes to wall mounting you have two options. First is a static wall mount, where your TV hangs on a wall like a picture using the mounting bracket that comes with most flat screen televisions. Second is an articulating wall mount, which offers the greatest flexibility because there are two or three arms attached to your TV that allow you to lower or raise it, turn it left or right and angle the screen to the viewing angle you want.

Articulating wall mounts are nice because no matter where you or your guests are sitting you can angle the TV so it’s in a position that’s comfortable for people to view.

Whichever option you choose, Lane says the biggest issue you need to consider is whether or not the wall you choose to mount the TV on can support the weight. “Most of these TVs are heavy enough that you’re not just going to screw one of these wall mounts into the drywall or into a stud,” she explains.

If you’re at the building stage adding the right support is as easy as asking your builder to put enough support on the wall where you want the television to be mounted. The extra support can be as simple as adding a piece of half inch plywood into the area that will serve as the anchor for the wall bracket.

If you’re past the building stage, you can just put the plywood on top of your finished wall and then add your wall mounting bracket and TV. In this instance she recommends adding a box or a picture frame around the edge of the television to hide the plywood.

Ceiling Mounting
If you really want to save space, and inspire some “oohs” and “ahs” from friends and neighbors, ceiling mounting is the way to go.

Cool factor aside, a ceiling mounted TV will save you a lot of space. In this instance your TV is mounted to a lift that looks like a trap door in your ceiling, you pull a lever and bingo your TV folds down from the ceiling on a motorized mount and hangs suspended in mid air.

Ceiling mounts work best if you have ceiling joists that you can attach the mount to.

Whether you opt for a ceiling or wall-mount remember that you’ll also need some shelving or cabinetry somewhere in the room to hold your DVD player, cable box and other components for your television. You’ll also need to work with your builder or installer to ensure that you have all the proper wiring and plugs in the area where you decide to mount your TV.

What kind of TV?
Although Moysey says just about any TV (right up to a television with a 65 inch screen) can be wall-mounted or ceiling-mounted, flat screens, which are typically plasma or LCD screens, make the most sense when space is an issue. Especially since a flat screen mounted on a wall only takes up three to four inches of depth.

If you’re buying a new television to be mounted both Moysey and Lane agree that the brand of television won’t really matter. Something to consider however is whether you want an LCD or plasma screen.

Moysey says a plasma screen offers a softer more organic picture which is nice for watching movies, while the light on an LCD screen is a brighter and harsher light that isn’t great if you’ll be watching TV for a long period of time. But this same bright light will help the TV cut through the light in a bright room and an LCD’s matte finish doesn’t reflect light as easily. So you should consider these things when buying a television for your specific room.

Either way you don’t want light shining directly on the screen, so when deciding where to mount your TV make sure you pick a spot that doesn’t get direct sunlight from a window.

Cost and time
Unless you’re a real handy man it’s best to leave these types of installations to the professionals. Moysey says a basic simple mount on the wall will cost about $75 dollars per hour and take two hours.

And as Lane explains, “The earlier you can let design people like us in the better we can hide the wires and do a bit of the messy work before you get in.’”

Even if you don’t watch a lot of TV investing in a wall or ceiling mount for your TV will not only save you space but enhance the resale value of your condo. The next owners will thank you for it – and so will your bank account.