Wall Panel 15T Walnut: matching walnut across the panel range

Walnut is the hardest of the wood finishes to get right, because the word covers a wide band of browns. The Wall Panel 15T in walnut is the walnut face of this slat profile: 3.5cm slats with 1.5cm gaps, on HDF with a felt backing, four pieces to a pack.

Matching walnut to walnut is the real risk

Several panels across the Slat & Acoustic Panels listings are described as walnut, on different profiles and in different formats. The descriptions do not publish a shade reference, so nothing on the site tells you that two walnut panels are the same brown. They may well be, and they may not.

What follows from that is simple. If one wall is panelled, buy it all at once and the problem disappears. If a second wall, a ceiling or an alcove is being done in a different panel, do not assume a match from the photographs. Ask us to compare the two before the order goes in, and if they do not sit together, a deliberate contrast is better than a near miss that looks like a mistake.

The 15 profile in numbers

• Panel: 60 x 240 x 1.5cm per panel, read as face width, height and thickness
• Slats: 3.5cm wide, with 1.5cm between them, giving a 5cm repeat and twelve repeats across a 60cm face
• Pack: 4 pieces, covering 5.76m², which is a 2.4m run at full height
• Trim named: Wall Panel PVC Trim Acoustic, sold separately
• Code: AWS-WP027

The slat count is arithmetic from the listed figures rather than a published number, and the listing does not say whether a full slat or a part gap sits at the panel edge.

Setting the run out

Work in panel widths from the start. Measure the wall at the floor and at the ceiling, take the wider reading, divide by 60cm and round up. Then decide where the part panel goes: tucked into the corner that is least seen, or split so each end carries the same margin. On a wall seen straight on, split it. On a hallway nobody stands square to, corner it.

Check the height before anything else. These panels are 240cm, and a room with a 2.45m ceiling needs either a different panel or a deliberate gap at the top with a trim across it. Measure the height in three places; older rooms drift.

Before the order goes in

The things this listing does not tell you are worth asking about rather than assuming:

• The colour of the felt behind the slats, which shows in every gap and changes how dark the panel reads.
• Any fire classification, and any sound absorption figure. The description says the backing absorbs sound and reduces noise transmission, but quotes no coefficient, class or test standard, and makes no claim about stopping sound passing through a wall.
• The fixing method, which is not stated at all. Tell us whether the wall is plaster, plasterboard or batten and we will say whether the panel adhesive is right for it.
• Moisture. Nothing in the listing offers this panel for a bathroom or an outside wall.

The nearest walnut alternatives

For walnut on the wide-slat profile, there is Wall Panel 17T; its slat and gap figures are on its own listing. For a taller wall, Wall Panel 02WT is listed at 280cm. For a walnut wall board rather than a slatted panel, there is Wall Panel 07W. If the walnut turns out too dark for the room, 15A in oak is the same profile in a lighter wood finish.

Delivery is free within 50 miles of our Glasgow store and £50 beyond. Photographs and the full listing are on the Wall Panel 15T walnut acoustic page, and we will put a panel beside anything you are trying to match before you order a wall of it.