Wall Panel 17Q Smoked Oak: hallways, offices and a 1.5cm depth

Slat panels get photographed in living rooms, but the narrow ones go up in corridors and offices just as often. Wall Panel 17Q in smoked oak is the wide-slat profile in a muted brown, and at a listed 1.5cm deep it is thin enough to consider in places where a thicker panelling system would be a nuisance.

Rooms other than the living room

A hallway is the obvious one. A single panelled wall along a corridor gives it a direction, and because you walk past rather than sit in front of it, the wide 5cm slat reads clearly at a glance. A stairwell suits it for the same reason, with the caution that panels are 240cm tall and a stairwell wall is rarely a rectangle, so expect raking cuts. A home office is the other common case: the felt-backed construction is the part of the description aimed at that, and it is where any reduction in room echo gets noticed, on calls. Nothing on the listing addresses damp or steam, so a kitchen splash zone, a utility or a shower room is a question for the shop rather than an assumption.

1.5cm, and what it has to clear

Thin panelling is easier to detail, but 1.5cm still projects. Check these before you order:

• Skirting. Either the panel stops on top of it, or the skirting comes off and goes back over the panel.
• Architraves. A door architrave usually stands proud of 1.5cm, so the panel can butt into it, but the join wants a trim.
• Switches and sockets. A faceplate sitting on the finished panel face needs its box packing forward, which is electrical work.
• Door swing and radiators. 1.5cm off the wall is enough to catch a door handle or a radiator bracket in a tight hallway.

What a pack reaches

The listing gives 60 x 240 x 1.5cm per panel, four panels a pack, 5.76m2 covered, a 5cm slat width and a 1cm space between slats. Four panels at 60cm make a 2.4 metre run, so a corridor wall of 5 metres takes three packs once you round up. Measure the length at floor level and again at head height in an older property, and work from the longer of the two.

Smoked oak: the name, and what is behind it

Smoked oak is usually taken to mean a darkened, slightly grey-brown oak, but this listing does not describe the colour beyond the name itself. There is no colour reference, no sheen level, and no statement of whether the face is a veneer, a foil or a print. Two photographs are published. If the panel is going into a hallway where it will be brushed past daily, that distinction is worth asking about, because the three wear differently at the edges.

Fittings, and the questions left over

The trim named on the listing is Wall Panel PVC Trim Acoustic, which is what finishes an exposed cut edge; it and the wall panel adhesive are ordered separately from panel trims and fittings. The listing states no fixing method, no panel weight and no fire rating, which in a hallway or a stairwell is worth raising with the shop before ordering. On sound, the description claims absorption and reduced noise transmission without publishing a single figure, so take it as a description of the build.

Alternatives on the same profile are Wall Panel 17T in walnut for something darker and Wall Panel 17A in oak for something lighter. All the measurements and photographs are on the Wall Panel 17Q smoked oak page, with the rest of the group in slat and acoustic panels. Delivery is free within 50 miles of our Glasgow store and £50 beyond.