With nails depends on the size of the nail and the type of wood, the size of the piece of wood for whether it splits usually.

If you use screws, pre drill the holes again to reduce chance of splitting.

I am not a woodworker, this is just my experience with this

Lol, nails and 2x4s are like spaghetti and meatballs

I figured nails would split the wood? And I would need some very long screws for screws. I didn't consider a flat bracket oddly enough, that might not be such a bad idea!

Wouldn't it just split the wood?

Nails, screws, small flat brackets for smaller pieces of wood

Look up “pocket screw”, you would do this on the backside.

Depending on how much this thing might move you could also get just a flat bracket that bridges one piece to the other. Not sure how you would use a 90 degree bracket on two pieces connected in same plane

Nails

That's great advice, especially regarding the start pattern, thank you for that!

Yes I am afraid that this is the safest option indeed... Thank you!

Haha that's too bad, can imagine you got pretty excited when there was a perfect match... Temporary unfortunately..

Yes there are quite some walls in the apartment, but I am considering to repaint only about 2-3 walls. I will get new lamps today, maybe playing smart with the lights/shadows will already solve this. Otherwise I'll have to repaint sooner or later I'm afraid.

It's a good idea to indeed cut a piece and bring it to a DIY shop, thanks!

I'm pretty comfortable chasing wiring with a multimeter, BUT 90% of being smart is knowing what you're dumb at. Some electrical jobs can be surprisingly cheap when hiring a professional, and it doesn't hurt to get an estimate.

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Sherwin Williams, th paint department at Home Depot, Ace, or Lowes can all analyze a dime to quarter sized chip of paint.

If you have a can of the original in a closet or the garage or something, that's even better because it will tell you the brand of paint used. See if there's a local place that sells that brand). Every paint company makes really similar finishes, but they can vary just enough to be able to see a re-painted splotch in the wall. If you do the whole wall floor to ceiling, corner to corner, the difference between the same finish from two different companies won't be noticeable.

I'd recommend using a roller, and learning how to cut-in (great videos on youtube for making it easy), and use latex paint because you can clean up stray brush marks with a damp rag right there on the spot.

Good to know.

I've got a tank that looks like it came off of a forklift, how hard is it to adapt to a normal fitting? Amy unseen pitfalls there?

Fascinating. My sewer line is maybe 4 feet below the top of my slab - but we don’t have to contend with freezing temps which I am sure is the driver for all of these things.

Wow. We’ll done. Original idea or something you saw somewhere?

Brick might be sketchy as it relies on the plugs.

What about hanging the sound bar off of the TV mount? I hanged mine off the VESA plate so that it turns with the TV.

Really depends on the L brackets. The masonry will hold a static load easily, with a decent anchor. The L brackets will be the weak point. Most that I've seen are nearly symmetrical so they can use thinner material with a strong cross section. It doesn't look like you have that much room under there for the back plate of an L.

I think you'll have trouble finding a decent off the shelf bracket, but it's not a huge deal to fab something.

Sound bar is 8-10 lbs I'd say. I'd be drilling to the brick, not stud.

That's the mantle. I'm not sure if it's solid wood all the way through, the outside texture doesn't feel like totally natural wood. I was thinking of installing reinforcement on that but was wondering it that'd be over-engineering lol.

I figured drilling into brick or similar material required anchors so I was going to use them anyway. Good to hear.

How heavy a sound bar? If you can screw into stud, it should be fine.

On the other hand, what about that wood (veneer?) thing across? Can that hold weight? A couple of Z brackets would let you hang off of that?

If thats masonry or cmu, you might need an anchor which should be more than enough to support a sound bar 15 inches away.

Agreed, I’m looking for potential sources of this issue so i can find a solution

It does not sound good that the lights are dimmer than they should be.