Wall Panel 01B Light Grey: what slat panels do for sound

Wall Panel 01B in light grey is a felt-backed slat panel the shop supplies, four panels to a pack at 60 x 240 x 1.5cm each, covering 5.76m². There are two reasons to buy a panel like this and they usually arrive together: the wall looks better, and the room sounds less hard. It is worth separating those two, because only one of them is something the listing can actually evidence.

The figures you can plan from

Four panels at 0.6m by 2.4m is 5.76m², so the coverage figure checks out. Read the panel size as width, length and thickness, and ask the shop to confirm if your fixing depends on the 1.5cm face.

Absorbing sound is not blocking it

This is the distinction that decides whether you will be happy. A slat panel on a felt backing is an absorber: it takes energy out of sound already in the room, so echo and that hard ring off a bare plaster wall are reduced. Speech sounds clearer on a video call, a kitchen-diner stops clattering, a stairwell stops booming.

What it is not is soundproofing. A panel fixed to your side of a wall does little about a neighbour's television or footsteps from the flat above, because that is transmission through the structure rather than reflection inside your room. If the problem is a noise coming in, panelling the wall is the wrong tool and you should say so to whoever suggested it.

The listing describes the felt backing as absorbing sound and reducing noise transmission, but gives no measured figure: no absorption coefficient, no absorption class, no NRC, nothing by frequency. So if you are treating a studio, a podcast room or an office to a specification, ask the shop whether the manufacturer publishes any test data before you order. For a living room that simply sounds too lively, the lack of a number matters much less.

Why light grey, and when it is the wrong choice

Light grey does two useful things. It keeps a panelled wall from closing a small room down the way a dark finish can, and it reads as a texture rather than as a piece of furniture, so it sits behind a sofa or a desk without competing. In a north-facing room it stays neutral where a warm oak would push the whole space yellow.

The honest caution: grey is the finish most affected by the light you view it in. A cool daylight-balanced lamp and a warm bulb will make the same panel look like two different products. Look at a sample in the actual room, in the evening as well as the daytime, before you commit to a whole wall. The listing does not state the felt colour, which may or may not match the slat tone, and on a slatted panel the felt is visible in every 1.5cm gap.

Ordering, and what is not stated

Measure the wall at its widest and tallest, multiply in metres and divide by 5.76. A 3m by 2.4m wall is 7.2m², so two packs. Buy the whole wall at once, because nothing here promises colour consistency between batches, and add the Wall Panel PVC Trim Acoustic named on the listing if an end of the run or the top edge will be visible.

Not stated anywhere on the listing: fire rating, moisture rating, fixing method, suitability for a ceiling, and whether it can be cut lengthways through a slat rather than a gap. The shop supplies adhesive for wall panels, but this panel does not name it as its fixing, so ask.

The alternatives worth a look

For the same light grey with a different slat profile, compare the broader 17B Light Grey wide slat, checking its own slat and gap figures rather than carrying these across. If the room wants depth instead of lightness, 01C in dark grey is this exact panel in the darker tone, and 01A in natural oak is the warm option. Everything sits in Slat & Acoustic Panels.

Specification, photographs and the order form are on the Wall Panel 01B - Light Grey - Acoustic page, and the shop can confirm the trim and the current lead time before you book a fitter. Delivery is free within 50 miles of our Glasgow store and £50 beyond.