How to install slat wall panels: the complete guide

Know your panel

Every Slats line goes up the same basic way: plumb line, fix, butt, repeat. What changes is what’s inside the panel, and that decides how you cut it, where the screws go and what you do at a corner. Get this part right and the rest of the guide makes sense.

ULTRALIGHT is one sheet of real wood veneer laminated onto 9mm felt, with the grooves cut into it. There’s no core at all, so a sharp utility knife cuts it and it bends around a curve. TrueWood Lite is individual slats, each a solid rubberwood core wrapped in veneer on three sides, stapled to felt from behind. Solid is individual slats of solid oak or walnut, milled all the way through, also stapled from behind. Paint-Ready is primed MDF with the profile routed into the face and no felt at all.

That difference matters most in one place: because every TrueWood and Solid slat is its own piece, you can lift one off the felt and use it as trim. ULTRALIGHT and Paint-Ready can’t do that, so they handle edges differently.

Line	One box covers	Built as	Fix with	Acclimate first
ULTRALIGHT (Slat, Wide, Accent)	59″	One veneer sheet on 9mm felt	Slat: screws or adhesive. Wide & Accent: adhesive only	Not needed
TrueWood Lite	47.2″	Veneered rubberwood slats, stapled to 5mm felt	Screws or adhesive	48–72 hours, flat
Solid Oak & Walnut	23.62″	Solid hardwood slats, stapled to 9mm felt	Screws or adhesive	48–72 hours, flat
Paint-Ready	47.2″	Primed MDF, no felt	Adhesive plus finishing nails	A day, flat

ULTRALIGHT Slat profileClose

TrueWood Lite profileClose

Solid Oak & Walnut profileClose

Paint-Ready profiles: Slat, Ridge and ValleyClose

Plan the wall

Start with height. Each panel is a little shorter than the wall it’s named for, which leaves room for baseboard and a ceiling that isn’t quite level: 94.49″ for an 8 ft wall, 106″ for 9 ft, 118″ for 10 ft. Solid comes in 141.6″ for 12 ft walls (and there’s no 118″ Solid, so a 10 ft Solid wall uses 141.6″ trimmed down). 141.6″ panels ship by freight, so plan for someone to be home to receive them and two people to carry each box.

Then width. Divide your wall width by what one box covers and round up. A 12 ft wall is 144″: that’s 144 ÷ 59 = 2.44, so 3 boxes of ULTRALIGHT. Rounding up leaves part of a box for cuts and offcuts; add your usual allowance on top for outlets and windows.

Now pick your starting corner. Corners are what people look at, so start at the most visible one, inside or outside, and work away from it. The panel you have to cut then lands at the far end, ideally where the wall dies into another corner, a cabinet or a run of trim. On Solid and TrueWood, cut the last panel on the edge that meets the corner, so the factory joint edge still faces the run.

What you’ll need

• Tape measure, pencil and a 4 ft level (or a laser)
• Stud finder and wall anchors, if you’re using screws
• Drill/driver and trim-head screws (sizes in the screw table below)
• Construction adhesive rated for wood and your wall surface, plus a caulk gun
• A sharp utility knife and a long straightedge
• A fine-tooth saw: track, circular or hand saw for TrueWood and Solid; handsaw or jigsaw for Paint-Ready
• Jigsaw or multi-tool, for outlet and switch openings
• Painter’s tape
• A black permanent marker
• Finishing nails, filler, sandpaper and paint (Paint-Ready only)

Get the panels ready

Open several boxes and lay the panels out before you fix a single one. Real wood varies, and no two slats are alike, so mixing panels from different boxes blends the tone and grain across the whole wall instead of leaving a patch where one box ends. Not sure about the tone? Order a sample first and hold it up in the room’s real light: veneer and felt read differently on your wall than on a screen.

Solid and TrueWood need time to settle into the room. Unbox them and lay them flat on the floor of the room they’re going into, out of their packaging, for 48 to 72 hours, clear of direct sun and heaters. If one has a slight bow, lay it high side up with a board and a few books on top while it settles. Paint-Ready wants a day lying flat in the room. ULTRALIGHT has no wood or MDF core to move, so it can go up the day it arrives.

Finally, prep the wall. It should be clean, dry and flat. Take off outlet covers and switch plates, pull any nails or hooks, and mark the studs if you’re using screws. ULTRALIGHT and Paint-Ready follow the wall rather than straightening it, so fill or sand anything that would show through.

Hang the first panel

1. Draw a plumb line Mark a vertical line where the first panel’s leading edge will sit. Corners are rarely plumb, so trust the line, not the wall. Everything after follows this panel, so check it twice.
2. Face it the right way ULTRALIGHT panels are identical at both ends, so either way works. TrueWood and Solid have a bare felt lip on one edge and an overhanging slat on the other: put the overhang into the corner and let the lip face the way you’re working. Paint-Ready Slat must go the same way round every time; Ridge and Valley go either way.
3. Glue the back Lay the panel face-down and run one continuous S-shaped bead of adhesive down the length, about 2″ back from every edge so nothing squeezes out at a join.
4. Press and check Press it to the plumb line, felt side to the wall, and check it with the level.
5. Fix it Add screws through the felt, or brace the panel until the adhesive grabs. Using both is fine: the adhesive keeps the face flat and the screws hold it while the glue takes. On Paint-Ready, pin it with finishing nails in the low point of the profile.

Screws, done right

Screws always go through the felt, never through the face of a slat. On TrueWood and Solid the felt is exposed in the gap between slats; on ULTRALIGHT Slat it’s at the bottom of each groove. Use trim-head screws: the small head sinks into the gap and all but disappears. Drive into a stud wherever one falls under a screw, and use a suitable wall anchor everywhere else.

Line	Rows of screws	Screw	Where it goes
ULTRALIGHT Slat	≤ 30″ apart	Trim-head	The outermost groove at each edge, about 1.7″ in. First and last rows 3″ from the ends
TrueWood Lite	≤ 24″ apart	#6, 1–1.5″, trim-head	The second gap in from each edge. First and last rows 3″ from the ends
Solid Oak & Walnut	≤ 24″ apart	#6 or #8, 1.5–2″, trim-head	The second gap in from each edge. First and last rows 3″ from the ends
ULTRALIGHT Wide & Accent	No screws	Adhesive only	A 3mm shadow reveal can’t seat a screw head. Finishing nails are fine
Paint-Ready	Nails	Finishing nails	The low point of the profile, never a face or a peak

On ULTRALIGHT Slat, the groove walls sit at 45°, so a countersunk trim head beds flat and centres itself. Drive it all the way home; a bugle or pan head is too wide and sits proud. Match the screw to the felt: black screws on black felt, and on oatmeal or grey felt colour the head with a permanent marker before you drive it.

Join panels seamlessly

Every Slats panel is cut so the join between two panels looks like every other gap on the wall. Butt each new panel tight to the last, fix it, and check plumb every two or three panels.

On ULTRALIGHT Slat, each panel end carries half a V-groove. Push the next panel in until the two 45° chamfers seat, and they close into one full groove. If the join looks wider than the others, the panel isn’t fully home. Wide and Accent meet in a deliberate 3mm shadow reveal.

On TrueWood and Solid, lower each new panel so its overhanging slat drops over the previous panel’s felt lip. Felt butts flush with felt, and the gap at the join matches the gaps across the panel.

On Paint-Ready, Slat and Ridge joins need nothing. Valley’s two half-scoops close into one continuous curve that shows any step, so fill the join, sand it flush and paint over it.

ULTRALIGHT SlatTrueWood LiteSolid Oak & Walnut

Cut to fit

Measure twice, and wear eye protection whenever you saw. How you cut depends on what’s inside the panel.

ULTRALIGHT Slat. A sharp utility knife and a straightedge do both cuts. Score the veneer first, then take two or three more passes through the felt. To cut to width, run the knife down the middle of a groove: the new edge is half a V, the same as a factory edge, so it butts into the next panel or a corner invisibly. Cutting a lot of panels? A saw is faster, though not cleaner: put painter’s tape along the cut line and use a fine-tooth blade with at least 60 teeth, face up.

ULTRALIGHT Wide and Accent. The faces are too broad for a knife alone, so take a fine-tooth blade through the veneer, face up, then a knife and straightedge through the felt. Cut Wide along a reveal wherever you can. A cut Accent edge comes out square, so send it into a corner, behind trim or against a cabinet rather than into a join mid-wall. For height, cut from the bottom so the factory edge stays at eye level.

TrueWood Lite and Solid. Cut to length with a track saw, circular saw or handsaw and a fine-tooth blade, with a straightedge clamped on and the panel supported full length. To cut to width you don’t need a saw at all: slice the felt in a gap with a utility knife and whole slats come away clean. Only sizing the felt? A razor blade does it. Never rip a slat lengthwise on a table saw: it can be done, but it isn’t safe. Take whole slats off instead.

Paint-Ready. Cut primed MDF with a handsaw, jigsaw or circular saw: face up with a handsaw or jigsaw, face down with a circular saw, so any breakout lands on the back. When you cut to width, rip at a low point of the profile and you reproduce a factory edge that still butts cleanly to the next panel. Only 0.06″ of board sits there, so back it up and use a fine blade. Prime every cut edge before you paint.

Where cut ends go. A cut ULTRALIGHT end shows the felt edge, and a cut TrueWood end shows the rubberwood core, so plan those to land behind baseboard, at the ceiling or into a corner. Solid is wood all the way through, so a cut end looks finished.

Outlets and switches

Take the cover plate off first. Then hold the panel up in position, mark the outlet or switch on its face, and cut the opening before you fix the panel. On ULTRALIGHT, a jigsaw, a multi-tool or a sharp utility knife all work, because there’s nothing hard inside. On TrueWood and Solid, a jigsaw or multi-tool goes through the slats and a utility knife handles the felt between them. The cover plate hides the cut edges.

Check how far the panel brings the wall forward. ULTRALIGHT adds about 0.35″ and TrueWood Lite about 0.39″, so a standard cover plate usually still sits flat. Paint-Ready adds 0.20 to 0.37″ depending on profile, and most plates still sit right. Solid adds about 0.87″, so fit box extenders wherever a device now sits behind the face of the panel.

Corners and trim

SolidTrueWood Lite

TrueWood and Solid: use your own slats. Every slat is its own piece, stapled to the felt from behind every 10–13″, so a slat lifts off cleanly and becomes trim. Same wood, same finish, nothing to colour-match.

Outside corner. Both panels present their 15.5mm felt lip, and two lifted slats butt over those lips, one slat’s end flush with the other’s face. Each slat lands 5mm on its lip and hangs 22mm past it, leaving the usual 10.5mm gap before the first slat. On Solid, hold the second panel 13mm back from the corner. TrueWood Lite is only 10mm deep, so both panels come back: 17mm on the lapped side, 12mm on the other. Glue and pin the two slats.

Inside corner. No trim needed. Lap the next panel’s overhanging slat over the first panel’s felt lip, the same joint as everywhere else on the wall. On Solid the slat reaches 22mm in, so hold that panel 6.5mm back and the two meet tight; on TrueWood Lite, hold it 5mm back. Or butt the two panels instead: on Solid, hold both 6.5mm back and leave a 13mm open square that reads as a shadow line; on TrueWood Lite nothing collides, so neither panel is held back.

Exposed edges. Run a single slat down the edge. On Solid it caps either edge, felt lip or overhanging slat. On TrueWood Lite, an edge that ends with the slat overhang is already finished; an edge that ends with the felt lip takes one slat laid flat on the lip, flush with the felt edge.

ULTRALIGHT Slat: the factory ends do the work. Every panel end is a 45° chamfer. At an inside corner, push the two panels together until the chamfers seat; they mitre themselves, with no cutting and no trim. At an outside corner, keep both factory ends and let the turning panel drop until its top sits flush with the wall face: the two chamfers line up into one clean bevel.

ULTRALIGHT Wide and Accent. At an inside corner, run one panel into the corner and butt the next square against its face. At an outside corner, cut both ends at 45° through the full 9mm and butt them: the two veneer faces meet and the mitre itself is the finished edge.

ULTRALIGHT exposed edges. At 9mm, a felt edge reads as a shadow line, so you can leave it. For a finished look, use 9mm × 2″ pine from any big-box store, glued and pinned flush with the veneer face. To match the colour, take an offcut to a paint or stain store; most will match it for free when you buy the stain.

Paint-Ready. Finish the run into a corner, a cabinet or trim, and caulk where it meets the trim before you paint.

Curves and bows

ULTRALIGHT Slat is the panel for curved walls, columns and arches. Bend it across the slats, never along them, and work it onto the curve gradually rather than forcing it. Use adhesive, start from the tightest part of the curve, and brace it until it cures. Wide bends too, but it’s stiffer: it follows a gentle wall curve, and for a column you want standard Slat.

Solid and TrueWood are real wood, and a slat can bow slightly as it adjusts to a new room. To pull one flat, put construction adhesive behind the panel, then drive a trim-head screw through the felt gap right beside the bowed slat into a stud or solid backing. Brace it while the adhesive cures and colour the screw head with black marker. Save your flattest panels for the most visible spots.

Paint (Paint-Ready only)

The panels arrive with about five coats of primer, sanded flat, so the factory face needs no prep. Paint once everything is up, nail holes are filled and Valley joins are sanded. Spray gives the best result on all three profiles. Rolling works on Slat and Ridge with a short-nap roller laid off in one direction. On Valley, cut into the scoops with a brush first, because a roller bridges them. Two thin coats beat one thick one, which pools in the low points. Keep the sheen low: the flatter the finish, the more of the profile’s shadow you keep.

Look after it

Dust with a soft dry cloth or a vacuum brush. Wipe up spills promptly, and skip harsh cleaners and abrasives. Don’t paint ULTRALIGHT, TrueWood or Solid: they’re real wood veneer or solid wood, finished at the factory.

Step by step, by line

Know which panel you have? Here’s the whole job for your line on one screen, with its full spec and install guide to download.