Stud sensors do go along the lines of good - better - best, but it can be still very difficult to locate the studs due to the metal and mesh used in the walls. You best bet is to use a little better quality stud sensor, look down along the length of the wall for for slight variations where the studs might be, then tap around a little with a screwdriver handle, listening for slight differences in sound. When all three seem to come together, mark the suspected location with a piece of masking tape. Then use something like a 1/16th inch drill bit to drill into the area - do you feel a stud or nothing at all? Did you get a little, or a lot of wood on the bit? Home in on it by going side to side. The small holes can easily be filled with spackling compound afterward and are hardly noticeable - a little touch-up paint - invisible. Be careful though since older construction is not always on 16" centers and I have seen many older walls built with 2x3s. I'd stay away from single stud mounts and just use plastic molding to run the cables down along the surface of the wall.

ROFL...love the reference to hubby's girlfriend! We built this house so we had the electrician put in the "tube" as he called it for the wires behind the wall. They just come out from the set and feed down the wall inside the tube to the outlet behind the dresser. The components were a sore spot for us as we struggled with what kind of dresser to buy and if we could somehow hide them but we ended up loving this RH dresser and just put them on stop. It doesn't look too awful although I would have prefered them hidden. I'll see if I can find any construction photos of the tube or wires behind....I don't know if I took any of them? Lindy

While you can recess the television into the wall, the back side then needs to be accessible and open enough to provide adequate ventilation since the front is now covered. Most better quality televisions will provide information on minimum clearances required when recessed mounted into the wall with the front open. This is a useful starting point when designing custom installations such as this. Try not to make the recess "too custom" to any particular television - the set can fail and may need to be replaced by something of other dimensions. You also need to address how the television is supported - a built-out wall mount behind the television, or sitting on a pedestal mount? Don't forget to figure in any downward tilt needed for the proper viewing angle. In-wall speakers, obviously, also need to be used and should have moisture resistant cones - generally outdoor or marine rated. Of course the television also needs to have the option for external speaker outputs. Using the two-way mirror approach will typically require the use of an IR repeater as the remote's IR signal may simply reflect off the mirror's surface. You also need to consider the mirror's thickness - will the television provide enough surface temperature to keep it clear or will it just fog over. The mirror may also affect viewing angle but this should not be too much of a problem since the seated location is fixed. Lots of things to consider...

They used two pair of heavy duty sliding drawer glides (black). The right side is one panel, left two panels, when open. You can see the glides in the "open" photo, but what you cannot tell from that photo is that the glides are mounted on wood strips.. not just into the wall. More sturdy that way, as the panels are fairly heavy. As you can also see in the "open" photo, the edges (top, bottom and sides) all wrap so that it looks like a finished "box" (and you cannot see behind panels). Hope that makes sense.