It is Finished

Finally, six months behind schedule, my living room wall is finished.

From left to right,

• Two glass fronted display cabinets, above storage drawer and cabinet
• 65” TCL Series 6, Sonos Arc Soundbar, three cabinets (two media storage, one for AV components)
• Dry bar, two glass front cabinets above a drawer and two wood front cabinets.

I have the two lights below the glassware cabinet on a separate driver from the four lights inside the cabinets. This lets me dim the display lights separately from the bar lights. I’m not certain that this was entirely necessary.

The hardest part of this entire project was figuring out how to run power to the sound bar behind the wall safely. My original plan was to install an outlet behind the sound bar, but the unit isn’t tall enough to hide a gang box.

{Actually the original plan was to attach the sound bar to the bottom edge of the TV, but the wife didn’t like the look of the “chin”}

There are tons of in-wall power kits to let you hide an outlet behind the TV, but this set from Echogear was the first one I found with a mini-gang box for speaker bar power and an HDMI pass through. It’s basically an extension cord made from Romex, so it is safe for in-wall use.

*** Safety point - make sure all your cables that go behind the sheet rock are rated to go there. Your 120v wires must be solid - not stranded. Your data & low voltage wires must have jackets rated for in-wall use. These ratings mean that the manufacturer warrants that in event of a fire, these wires won’t make things worse. 

Yes, tons of people just run the cords that came with their equipment behind the wall and care nothing for UL or ETL ratings or the National Electric Code; but in the event of a house fire, your insurance company is looking for a reason to avoid writing a large check. Do you want to give them that reason? ***

Both sets of low voltage lighting are TRÅDFRI units, which are attached to HomeKit, so I can control them through Siri. The TV and sound bar are also HomeKit & AirPlay compatible.

Not visible in this picture, because they are on the back wall, Sonos Sub and two IKEA Symphonisk speakers as rear channels.

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