Wall Panel 02WT Walnut: the 280cm slat panel for tall walls

Most slatted panelling is made for a standard room. The Wall Panel 02WT in Walnut is not: at 280cm per panel it is one of the taller options in the slat and acoustic panel range, which makes it the one to look at for a stairwell wall, a room with a raised or vaulted ceiling, or a hallway where a horizontal join halfway up would be the first thing anyone saw.

The figures from the listing

The description gives HDF slats on a felt backing with a walnut finish. The three dimensions read as width, height and thickness, so the panel is 60cm across, 280cm from end to end, and stands 1.7cm proud of the wall. Slat plus gap is a 5cm repeat, twelve repeats to a 60cm panel. The listing does not say which slat lands at a panel edge, so ask the shop what two panels look like butted together if the spacing has to carry straight through the seam.

What a pack reaches

Three 60cm panels cover 1.8m of wall width at the full height. Working in packs:

• Up to 1.8m wide: one pack
• Up to 3.6m wide: two packs
• Up to 5.4m wide: three packs

On a stairwell the width is not the whole story, because the bottom edge follows the stairs rather than a floor. Set the panels from the ceiling line down and cut the bottom to the rake, then work out your panel count from the widest part of the wall. The 5.04m² in the listing is the face area of three panels, so it will overstate what you get out of a pack once the raked offcuts are discounted.

Measuring, and the two readings people miss

1. Floor to ceiling in at least three places. A long wall that measures 276cm at one end and 283cm at the other needs the panels cut to the larger figure or scribed, and 280cm leaves very little to play with.
2. The wall width at the top and at the bottom, taking the wider reading.
3. Where the run starts. A corner start is simplest, but check what lands at the far end before you commit; a 10cm strip of slats in the corner of a hall reads as a mistake.
4. Anything that has to sit beside the finished face. The panel takes 1.7cm off the room, which matters at a door architrave, a handrail bracket or a radiator.

Matching walnut elsewhere in the range

If some walls in the same space are a standard height, the Wall Panel 01T Walnut is also listed as walnut, in a 240cm panel four to a pack, on a single 2.5cm slat width rather than this panel’s 3.5cm. The Wall Panel 04T Walnut is also walnut at 240cm but on a different slat profile, with two slat widths rather than one, so compare the photographs before mixing the two on adjoining walls. For the same 280cm format in a lighter tone, the Wall Panel 02WA in Oak shares every dimension here. Cut edges are finished with the trim the listing names, Wall Panel PVC Trim Acoustic; trims come in their own lengths, so check what you order covers a 280cm edge, and the panel trims and fittings range has the end and corner profiles.

Where the listing is silent

There is no absorption figure, no test standard and no fire rating given. The description says the felt backing absorbs sound, and that is the whole of the evidence, so treat it as slatted panelling with a felt back rather than as a specified acoustic product. Nothing is stated about the panel weight, the felt colour, the fixing method, or whether the walnut face is a printed finish or a veneer. For a stairwell in particular the weight and the fixing method are worth a phone call, since you may be working off a ladder over a drop. Ask the shop, and ask for the current lead time while you are there.

Measure the height in three places first, then order the Wall Panel 02WT Walnut acoustic pack by the pack on its product page. Delivery is free within 50 miles of our Glasgow store and £50 beyond.