How do you decorate a wall with acoustic panels?

Absorption panels are an ideal solution to an acoustic problem in a single-room space such as offices, restaurants, hotel lobbies, recording studios, bedrooms, or classrooms. Made of highly absorptive material, these panels trap and contain sound waves rather than letting them bounce around the room. This minimizes echo and eliminates background noise, while improving speech intelligibility and the overall acoustical quality of the space.

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Absorption panels are a DIY&#;ers dream solution for soundproofing. They are incredibly easy to mount on the wall, and can also be personalized and decorated to fit any room&#;s décor.  There are multiple ways that you can make absorption panels your own, solving acoustical problems without having an eyesore in your space. Check out our top 5 ways to decorate absorption panels below!

Create a Sound Absorbing Cork Board

Cork boards are a great place to post info and ideas that everyone can collaborate on. You can purchase a roll of cork board sheet at any office supply store, cut it to fit your absorption panel, and paste it down with adhesive. This gives your absorption panel everyday utility while still being aesthetically pleasing and effective at soundproofing. Ideal for both the office and the home, cork boards are a versatile and useful way to decorate your absorption panel.

You should only require the extra cork board to glue to the surface of an acoustic panel made using 3 pcf fiberglass. A sound absorbing panel made using 6 pcf fiberglass core is rigid enough that you can use a thumb tack on it and not worry about any photos falling down. Just wrap the fiberglass core in fabric to hide the bright yellow, and you&#;ll have a sound absorbing cork board.

Fabric Wrapping DIY Acoustic Panels

You can customize our absorption panels by thickness, size, and color. With many acoustically transparent fabric options, your panels can fit in with the decor of any room. Some acoustic fabrics can end up making a DIY acoustic panel cost more than it needs to if you want something with a texture of pattern. 

Be sure to check out your local craft store for more color and pattern options, because you can use cotton fabric and it will work  just like any acoustically transparent fabric at a fraction of the price. When looking for a fun fabric for your DIY panels, just be sure it&#;s not too thick, so if you were to shine a flash light up to it, you&#;d be able to see light out the other side. You want sound waves to still be able to pass through the fabric and be absorbed into the fiberglass core. 

Custom Art Decorated Sound Panels

Absorption panels can be screen printed with your custom art. The choice is up to you, whether it be a photo, design, or pattern. This can transform a simple soundproofing solution into a beautiful piece of art! Through a process known as dye-sublimation, we can actually print an image of your choice onto acoustically transparent fabric.

You also have the option to decorate the fabric yourself if you&#;re on a budget, or if you enjoy being creative. Using fabric markers is the best way to decorate an acoustic panel with custom art. Be sure not to use acrylic paints, or any other paints for that matter, on your DIY acoustic panel, as the paint will seep into the pores of the fabric and core, preventing your panel from absorbing sound. 

Paintable Acoustic Panels

Paintable acoustic panels are ideal for spaces where style is just as important as soundproofing. With a fiberglass core, echo and reverberation is reduced while the paintable facing allows for limitless design potential. This is a great product for creative spaces, classrooms, or children&#;s bedrooms. Although we mention never using paint on an acoustic panel, our paintable acoustic panels come with a special paint type meant to be used on DIY panels. Make a fun project out of painting the absorption panels, and then enjoy the handmade art in your space!

With these design ideas, absorption panels can be effective at solving your sound absorption needs while matching the aesthetic of the space. If you decorated your absorption panels, send us a photo or post it in the comments below!

DIY Decorative Acoustic Panels

There are a lot of different things you can do to make your acoustic panels decorative as well as functional. A lot of people think you can just pick the fabric color and that&#;s it, but they don&#;t have to stay so plain!

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To decorate or not to decorate? When it comes to acoustic wall and ceiling panels for commercial typologies, architects must ask whether or not they want a bold statement-making solution or one that seamlessly blends into the walls of a contemporary work-space. Both can be ideal solutions depending on context, but one thing is certain: This specifying decision is a crucial one due to the significant aesthetic impact of these products.

If the decorative approach is taken, acoustic panels have the capability to act as the visual centerpiece of a space much like an accent wall or large-format artwork but with the added benefit of functionality. Acoustic panels can brighten up a room with unusual shapes and compelling colors while also simultaneously soundproofing it. They solve a common practical problem in an open-plan office but, when adeptly specified on Source, can also be ridiculously good-looking.

Impressions by KnollTextiles

Creating a quiet space doesn&#;t mean the design of the room has to be quiet; in fact, some of the loudest panels from a visual perspective provided the highest soundproofing effects. As is well-documented by now, noise pollution is a real problem in the modern-day workplace. If we&#;re being bombarded with sound when we step outside closed doors, it&#;s imperative that we design interior spaces that help drown out the pandemonium we hear on the streets.

Today, architects have at their fingertips a range of sound-absorbing products that are so aesthetically handsome that they become decorative artworks in and of themselves. Manufacturers and designers who specialize in wall coverings offer a plethora of materials and textures to match your project.

BuzziBrickBack by BuzziSpace

Rossoacoustic PAD by Nimbus Group

For more information, please visit Wall Decoration Akupanel Acoustic Panels.

Felt specialists like BuzziSpace and FilzFelt have pioneered design-centric acoustic products. The BuzziSpace BuzziBrickBack features stacked colors of self-adhering felt stripes that turn entire walls into visual art candy. Fabric behemoth KnollTextiles is also a major industry leader and offers its Impressions collection of ultra-thin sound-absorbing tiles as a premier product. Nimbus Group made the dimpled and cotton-like Rossoacoustic PAD, which is made of embossed fleece and comes six millimeters thick. It&#;s great for adding a unique shape to a wall and can even be used as a ceiling acoustical cloud.

Muratto&#;s cork organic blocks

Muratto Cork Wall Coverings has created organic blocks that come prefinished from Portugal. Made of molded recycled cork pieced together in saturated fashion-forward colors, the panels are cut in five high-relief geometric designs created with a major 3-D effect. The material is naturally antimicrobial, non-allergenic and anti-static and provides some levels of thermal insulation.

Kirei&#;s peel-and-stick Geometry tiles in Penta

Kirei&#;s EchoPanel Tiles come in three different style groups depending on aesthetic and ease-of-installation needs. One of the most attractive from this family is the Geometry collection, a peel-and-stick series comprising hexagons, squares, triangles, rectangles and pentagrams. The tiles can be arranged in any kind of configuration, and, because they come in a total of 20 colors, they can even be used to create an artistic mural. Geometry tiles offer an NRC rating of approximately .36 and have a Class-C fire rating.

Kirei&#;s EchoScreen

Further to this, Kirei&#;s EchoPanel Modular Screen Systems are freestanding solutions that can be used to wrap, divide or carve out space in an open plan. A variety of panel shapes in different heights can be combined with joiners that range from 360-degree pivot (for Platoon series only) to X- and Y-shape to straight and 90-degree connectors to build room dividers that go way beyond the accordion-style screens of yore. The connectors come in cream, charcoal or copper finishes to ensure there&#;s an option for every style interior and color palette.

Arper&#;s Parentesit Collection offers three shapes.

Smith and Fong&#;s Sound Collection

Even non-fabric companies like seating brand Arper and wood-panel company Smith and Fong have come out with their own impressive lines of decorative acoustic products. Arper&#;s playful geometric Parentesit collection, designed by Lievore Altherr Molina, unveils cut modules that can be specified to have different hues and fabrics.

They can even be backlit for a dramatic effect. Smith and Fong&#;s award-winning Sound Collection (formerly Plyboo Sound) introduced seven designs last year constructed from FSC-certified bamboo. The collection also incorporates the manufacturer&#;s QuietWall noise-dampening technology, which boasts an NRC of up to 0.70.

Zintra baffle system by Baresque

Ceilings can also feature eye-catching hanging panels, like Baresque&#;s Zintra acoustic line of polyester felt clouds and baffle systems. The clouds are blade- or petal-like volumes formed of felt grids and measure 43 to 47 inches in diameter, while the baffle systems come in two standards sizes and two baffle depths and come with a preassembled frame to easily create ceiling topographies.

Carnegie&#;s Xorel Artform

Also a newcomer on the acoustics scene, renowned textile company Carnegie recently launched their Xorel Artform. This line of geometric wall and ceiling panels utilizes a Quiet Core acoustical substrate for an NRC of up to 0.70 and the highly durable and cleanable Xorel fabric.

With the help of these manufacturers&#; expertise, specifying striking acoustic paneling doesn&#;t have to be daunting, despite the huge number of options. Companies like these make it easy to pick a sound-proofing product that blends well with an architectural interior while also holding its own in a room. All you have to do is make your search on Source, and acoustic specialists will soon be in touch to help you arrive at the ideal solution &#; no shouting required!

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This article was written by Sydney Franklin, building upon original features by Sheila Kim.

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