Jon Peters is one of the most familiar faces in woodworking on YouTube, and his two-part TV lift cabinet series is a great example of how a simple box can become a handsome piece of furniture. TVLiftCabinet.com sponsored the project, and the second video was also sponsored by SOSS invisible hinges.

He starts in a smart way. Before dressing anything up, he built a plain plywood box and installed the lift just to see how it works. That test showed him he wanted to pad the lift out about two and a quarter inches so the TV would rise closer to the center of the cabinet. So he built a small tray on the back, reinstalled the lift, and confirmed he liked it before moving on.

The lift install in the video is quick to follow. He drops the lift onto two pins, holds it with a thumb screw at the top, and shows that you can level it by loosening the thumb screw and adjusting the Allen keys on each side. He also pads out a spot for the manual up and down switch.

From there it is classic furniture work.

A pop up TV cabinet looks like a beautiful piece of furniture until you press a button. Then your television rises smoothly out of the top, ready to watch. When the show is over, it lowers back inside and the room looks like a room again, not a media wall.

Winter is when this matters most. We spend more time indoors, the holidays fill the house with family, and the living room has to work as a gathering space and a movie room at the same time. A pop up TV cabinet lets it do both.

Where a pop up TV cabinet works best

The living room. Place the cabinet in front of a window, in the center of the room, or behind the sofa. With the TV hidden, the fireplace, the Christmas tree, or the view can be the focal point.

The bedroom. At the foot of the bed, the TV rises to a natural viewing angle from your pillows, then disappears so the room feels calm at night.

Smaller rooms. No wall to spare? A cabinet gives you a TV without giving up a wall for windows, art, or shelves.

What to look for

• Solid wood.

If you have ever wondered what actually shows up at your door when you order a TV lift, this brand new video from The Master Tron Tamer answers it. He unboxes a 32.5-inch smart TV lift from TVLiftCabinet.com, walks through every part, and then previews the TV lift cabinet he plans to build in an upcoming series.

The first thing he notices is the packing. He says more than once that the lift is really well packed. Inside he finds a parts bag with the remote control, screws, and a lower mounting bracket, plus an extra top bracket that attaches the cabinet lid to the lift so the lid rises with the TV. He also checks the documentation and says it has lots of illustrations about installation.

Then he pulls out the lift itself. He points out that the weight is not trivial, and he says that is a good thing. He shows the pivoting bracket where the TV mounts, the mounting points that attach to the cabinet, and how the lower bracket goes in the bottom of the cabinet so the lift slides onto it.

The

Here is a build that proves a TV lift does not always have to lift a TV. Nathan from Nathan Builds used a swivel lift from TVLiftCabinet.com to raise a hidden liquor shelf out of the back of a walnut cabinet. With Thanksgiving and holiday gatherings coming up, it is a fun idea for anyone who loves to host.

The cabinet body is walnut plywood, and instead of iron-on banding for most parts, he glued on quarter-inch strips of solid walnut for a more durable edge. He is upfront that a few strips left small gaps, so he filled them with sawdust and glue and sanded them smooth. He cut grooves for sliding front doors and assembled most of the body with glue and biscuits.

This was his second project with a TVLiftCabinet.com lift, after the hidden TV stand. He says the quality is really good, the steel is strong, and the lifts come with good instructions and detailed drawings. For this build he used a swivel lift, and he explains that the swivel version has a little more structure because it needs

An electric TV lift is the motor and frame that raises your television out of a cabinet, a bench, or a custom piece of furniture, then lowers it out of sight when you are done. Press a button on the remote and the screen glides up. Press it again and it disappears. It is the part that makes a lift cabinet work, and if you are building your own furniture or converting a piece you already love, it is the part you need to get right.

Who buys an electric TV lift on its own?

Most of our customers buy a finished cabinet with the lift already installed. But a stand alone lift is the right choice when you have:

• A carpenter or cabinetmaker building something custom
• An antique chest, dresser, or console you want to convert
• Built-in cabinetry in a family room, bedroom, or home theater
• A project where the TV needs to come down from the ceiling instead of up from a cabinet

How to choose the right electric TV lift

1. Match the lift to your TV size. Every lift is rated for a range of TVs. Our lifts start

Everybody wants to watch the big game by the fire pit. Nobody wants a TV bolted to the siding, fading in the sun and collecting pollen all spring.

An outdoor TV lift cabinet solves both problems. The TV lives inside a weatherproof cabinet and rises only when it is time to watch. Every cabinet in this list is built from recycled HDPE, the same marine grade material used on boats, so it will not rot, crack, warp, or need painting. They roll on hidden casters, arrive fully assembled, and have three built-in outlets to power the TV and your streaming gear. Here are 12 ways to make it work in your outdoor space, plus a checklist at the end so you plan the power and shade right.

1. A Crisp White Cabinet for the Pool Deck

Poolside is where a TV gets the most use and the most abuse. Splashes, sunscreen hands, and summer storms. The Armor in White looks clean against a bright pool deck and shrugs off water, and when the swimmers go home the screen drops out of sight. One owner says they roll it

If you think a TV lift build is only for people with a huge shop, Nathan from Nathan Builds wants to change your mind. In this video he builds a walnut plywood TV stand with side shelves, sliding front doors, and a TV lift from TVLiftCabinet.com hidden in the back. TVLiftCabinet.com sponsored the video, and he says clearly that it can be built by someone with basic woodworking skills.

The body is mostly walnut plywood, and the legs and base are solid walnut. He cut the plywood in stages instead of all at once so everything would fit, and he used a track saw, a circular saw, and a table saw along the way. It was his first time using iron-on edge banding, and his advice is simple: do not stress about it. A regular iron, a razor, and a little sanding did the job.

For joinery he used an inexpensive doweling jig on the main body and a Kreg pocket hole jig for the interior parts. He cut dados on the top and bottom for the sliding doors, making the top dados deeper so the doors can be lifted in