Which wood slat panel is right for you? A buyer's guide

The short answer

All four Slats lines make a warm, real-looking slat wall. What changes is how it’s built, how far it stands off the wall, where it can go and how much work the install is. In one line each:

• ULTRALIGHT: real wood veneer on felt, the lightest and easiest to install, and our most affordable line. Ceilings, curves and rentals included.
• TrueWood Lite: individual slats with a solid rubberwood core, wrapped in real wood veneer. The natural upgrade for a more substantial look.
• Solid Oak, Walnut and Bamboo: the real thing, all the way through. Our premium line, and the only one that comes 12 ft tall.
• Paint-Ready: a fluted wall you paint any color you like.

Start here

Five quick questions. Stop at the first answer that names a line.

The four lines side by side

Swipe to compare →

How far each one stands off the wall

This is the difference you notice first in person. ULTRALIGHT is one flat sheet with grooves cut in. TrueWood and Solid are individual slats sitting on felt, so the wood stands proud of the wall and throws a real shadow, and Solid stands out more than twice as far as TrueWood.

ULTRALIGHT

Real wood veneer laminated straight onto 9mm of recycled acoustic felt, with no MDF or wood core behind it. The grooves are cut into one continuous sheet, so it reads as slats while staying light enough to bend across the slats around a curve or a column. Each panel is 11.80″ wide with 1.20″ slats and 0.49″ grooves, in 8, 9 or 10 ft heights.

ULTRALIGHT Wide swaps the slats for three broad 3.82″ faces per panel, and ULTRALIGHT Accent is a flat veneer face with no grooves at all. Both use the same veneers as the Slat, so they mix on one wall.

ULTRALIGHT finishes

White Oak

Walnut

Grey Oak

Black Oak

Dark Smoke Oak

Felt comes in black, grey, oatmeal or brown depending on the finish, and it shows in every groove, so pick it with the wood.

Choose it if you want the quickest install, a ceiling, a curve, a rental, or the most wall for your budget. Skip it if you want slats you can feel with deep shadows between them: that’s TrueWood or Solid.

TrueWood Lite

TrueWood is the natural upgrade when you want a more substantial look than ULTRALIGHT. Each slat has a solid rubberwood core wrapped in real wood veneer on the top and both sides, stapled onto felt from behind, so you get real three-dimensional slats with shadow between them at only 10mm deep. Slats are about 1.06″ wide with 0.41″ gaps; panels come in 8, 9 or 10 ft heights.

TrueWood Lite finishes

Natural Oak, oatmeal felt

Natural Oak, black felt

American Walnut

Grey Oak

Dark Grey Oak

Dark Smoke Oak

Black Oak

Choose it if you want more depth and a more substantial feel than ULTRALIGHT without the weight of solid hardwood. Skip it if you need it up the same day (it lies flat in the room for 48–72 hours first) or it’s going in a bathroom with a shower.

Solid Oak, Walnut and Bamboo

Solid is for people who care most about the material and the quality. There’s no veneer and no core: Solid American Oak and Solid American Walnut are 13mm hardwood slats milled all the way through, finished with three coats of low-satin polyurethane, on 9mm black felt. Solid Bamboo is 100% solid bamboo, and it’s our most sustainable panel. Panels come in 8, 9 and 12 ft (141.6″), the tallest we make.

Solid finishes

Solid American Oak

Solid American Walnut

Bamboo, Natural

Bamboo, Medium Brown

Choose it if you want the statement wall, the deepest shadow lines, a wall over 10 ft, or a bathroom (Oak or Walnut, with proper ventilation and no direct water). Skip it if you’re on a tight budget or want to carry boxes up stairs alone: two panels per box, and a 12 ft box of oak weighs about 49 lbs.

Paint-Ready

Low-VOC MDF with the profile routed into the face and five coats of primer sanded flat. It ships primed white and you paint it. Panels are 11.80″ wide in 8, 9 or 10 ft heights (Ridge comes in 8 and 9 ft).

Paint-Ready profiles

Slat: flat-topped slats

Ridge: rounded half-rounds

Valley: concave scoops

Choose it if you want a fluted wall in your own color, or a profile that wraps around a column or arch. Skip it if you want the look of wood, or you’d rather not paint: painting is part of the job. It has no felt behind it, so it’s chosen for the look rather than for echo.

How the joins look

Every line is cut so the join between two panels looks like every other gap on the wall. On ULTRALIGHT Slat each panel end carries half a groove, and two panels close into one full groove. On TrueWood and Solid, the last slat of each panel overhangs its felt and laps over the next panel’s felt lip. ULTRALIGHT Wide and Accent meet in a deliberate 3mm shadow line, and Paint-Ready panels butt edge to edge.

Where each one can go

Which one for your room?

• Renting: ULTRALIGHT.
• A first DIY project: ULTRALIGHT. No waiting, light to handle, cuts with a knife.
• A home office that echoes on calls: ULTRALIGHT or TrueWood Lite on the wall behind or facing your desk.
• A ceiling, a van or a low room: ULTRALIGHT first (lightest, 9mm), TrueWood Lite second.
• A curved wall or a column: ULTRALIGHT; Paint-Ready for columns and arches.
• A double-height wall up to 12 ft: Solid, in 141.6″.
• A bathroom: Solid Oak or Walnut, or Paint-Ready in a water-resistant paint. Away from direct water, in a properly ventilated room, never in a shower.
• A color to match your room: Paint-Ready.
• The biggest wall for your budget: ULTRALIGHT.
• Two finishes in one room: absolutely. Oak next to walnut, a slat wall beside a flat ULTRALIGHT Accent panel, two lines on facing walls: there’s no wrong answer.

How to judge samples

1. Hold them on the wall they’re going on. Not on a table and not in another room: the light on that wall is what you’ll live with.
2. Look morning, midday and evening. Daylight shifts through the day, and a finish that reads warm at noon can look darker at night.
3. Turn your lamps on. Warm and cool bulbs change wood a lot. Check them under the lights you actually use after dark.
4. Put them next to what stays. Your floor, trim, cabinets and the biggest piece of furniture in the room.
5. Look from the side. That’s where you see the depth: how far TrueWood and Solid stand off the wall compared with ULTRALIGHT.
6. Check the felt. It shows in every gap, so judge the wood and felt together.

Still torn between two? Order samples of both.

How many boxes?

Divide your wall width by the width one box covers, then round up:

• ULTRALIGHT: 59″ of wall per box (5 panels).
• TrueWood Lite and Paint-Ready: 47.2″ per box (4 panels).
• Solid Oak and Walnut: 23.62″ per box (2 panels).
• Solid Bamboo: 24.18″ per box (2 panels).

Heights are named for the wall they suit: each panel is a little shorter than its name, so there’s room for a baseboard and a ceiling gap. The Install Guide covers the rest.

Questions people ask

What’s the difference between ULTRALIGHT and your other panels?

ULTRALIGHT is one sheet of real wood veneer on felt with the grooves cut in. TrueWood and Solid are individual slats sitting on felt, so they stand further off the wall with more shadow. ULTRALIGHT is the lightest and easiest to install; Solid is the real thing all the way through.

Are your slats acoustic?

The felt-backed lines (ULTRALIGHT, TrueWood and Solid) soften echo and reverb inside a room. They aren’t soundproofing. Paint-Ready has no felt and is chosen for the look. More in how wood slat panels work.

Can I mix two finishes in one room?

Absolutely. Order samples of both and try them together on the wall.

Is there a warranty?

Yes, a one-year limited warranty. The details are in each line’s spec sheet and install guide.

Are they fire rated?

No. Our panels are not fire rated. If a fire rating is required for your project, check with your contractor or your local building code before ordering.

Questions about your wall? Ask us, a real person writes back.