8 Popular Types of Wall Panelling and How to Choose the Right One for Your Interior Design
8 Popular Types of Wall Panelling and How to Choose the Right One for Your Interior Design
- Introduction
- Different Types of Wall Panelling
- Acoustic Wall Panels
- Wood Slat Panels
- Slat Wall Panels
- Wainscoting
- 3D Wall Panels
- Shiplap Wall Panels
- Beadboard Wall Panels
- Tongue and Groove Wall Panels
- How to Install Different Types of Wall Panelling
- Conclusion: How to Choose the Right Wall Panelling for Your Home
- Why Tile Merchant?
Introduction
Wall panelling is all the rage in Irish interior design right now, and for good reason! Different types of wall panelling offer a variety of benefits to your aesthetic, insulation, the sound quality in your home, and the look and feel of your home.
Follow our comprehensive guide to the 8 most popular different types of wall panelling to discover which of these versatile styles and designs could help you bring your dream interiors to life! We’ll explore everything from acoustic wall panelling and slat wall panels to 3D wall panelling to help you make the best choice for your budget and interior aesthetic.
Different Types of Wall Panelling
When planning your next interior design project, you may very well find yourself asking: What are the different types of wall panelling?
With so many different wall panel designs available at Tile Merchant, it can be hard to know which one will best serve your interior design needs.
What do they cost? How do they work? Are they easy to install? And what other benefits accompany these gorgeous indoor wall panels?
Learn the answers to these questions and more with the Tile Merchant guide to wall panelling
Acoustic Wall Panels
Also known as Akupanels, or Acupanels, acoustic wall panels are one of the most modern and intriguing additions to our extensive range of wall panelling options. Let’s find out more.
Acoustic wall panels are available in different sizes and come in various sizes, including vertical and square shapes.
Characteristics of Acoustic Panels
Acoustic wall panels are designed to act like soundproofing panels – the likes of which you might find in a recording studio or karaoke room.
These panels absorb excess sound wherever they’re installed, reducing tinny vibrations and elevating the sound quality of your Irish interior spaces whilst reducing the noise your home emits and receives from outside, such as from neighbouring rooms and houses.
Composition of Acoustic Panels
Made from recycled and eco-friendly wood composites and thermoplastics, acoustic wall panels are vertically slatted to offer a gorgeous aesthetic – perfect for creating stunning feature walls which showcase your décor, furnishings, and technology.
Imagine, for example, creating a TV feature wall that turns your living room into your own personal home cinema.
Each wall panel measures 240x60cm (vertical wall panel) or 60x60cm (square wall panel) and is backed by a thick layer of felt, the combination of the felt and slats improves sound quality and reduces noise all around the room.
Benefits of Acoustic Panels
- Improved sound quality
- Reduction in unwanted noise, echoes, and tinny vibrations
- Improved mental wellbeing and productivity
- Affordable price
- A dawdle to install
- None of the upkeep maintenance required by real wood panelling
- Available in a range of natural wood and coloured finishes, perfect for complimenting existing décor and interior design colour palettes
Cost of Acoustic Panels
Toward the pricier end of the scale, our acoustic wall panelling is nevertheless carefully price-matched to remain competitive on the wood-effect wall panel market.
Each of our extensive range of acoustic wall panels comes in at just €59.99/m2.
Wood Slat Panels
Woodlux wooden wall panelling from Tile Merchant comes in a wide and versatile range of shapes and styles (ie. Bamboo), from wide flowing grooves to more traditional slats.
Characteristics of Wood Panels
Woodlux wooden wall panels are the perfect wall panel for introducing a real hardwood look and feel to your home on a tighter budget.
Complimented by matching dado rails and end-pieces, our wooden wall panels mimic the gorgeous aesthetic of natural wood with all the durability, wear-and-tear resistance, and easy installation of MDF.
Available in an extensive range of coloured finishes, these wall panels can transform any room in the Irish home in a matter of hours.
Ideal for the Irish interior DIY designer who wants maximum impact with minimal hassle.
Composition of Wood Panels
These wooden wall panels are made from ultra-strong foil-wrapped MDF, making them light, affordable, and easy to work with.
Their construction also offers our customers ultimate control over the final look of their next interior renovation, with the ability to choose from various stunning colours inspired by some of the most popular luxury paint manufacturers in Ireland, as well as blank canvas wall panels prepped for you to paint yourself.
Benefits of Wood Panels
- A wide variety of groove and slatted styles to choose from
- MDF is light and pliable, giving you flexible control over installation
- Quick to install
- Long-lasting and durable MDF gives these panels an unbeatable lifespan
- Wear-and-tear resistant
- Dado rails offer the option to create picture rails for hanging art along your panels
Cost of Wood Panels
Our gorgeous and widely popular range of Woodlux wood wall panelling costs the same as our acoustic wall panels, just €59.99/m2
Slat Wall Panels
Designed with tongue-and-groove technology, the Tile Merchant range of slat wall panels click together like LEGO® to make designing and installing them as features in your home ridiculously easy.
The most affordable of our wall panelling offerings, these are panels you can’t afford to pass up if you’re looking for a quick and budget-friendly home makeover
Characteristics of Slat Wall Panels
Real wood interiors look gorgeous – we all know that – but they also tend to be prohibitively expensive, hard to install, and even harder to maintain, requiring regular maintenance and often easily scratching; a big no-no for Irish families with pets and young kids!
All of our slat wall panels are designed with eye-catching vertical slats that draw the eye, creating the illusion of taller ceilings and broader spaces for maximum visual impact.
You can completely change the look and feel of your Irish kitchens, living rooms, bedrooms and hallways with these panels – not to mention bathrooms, thanks to their remarkable water-resistance.
Available in four colours to suit a range of colour schemes, Tile Merchant slat wall panelling can introduce a photorealistic wooden interior to your home or, if you’re looking for something even more unique, a rich black anthracite hue.
Composition of Slat Wall Panels
Slatted wall panelling is made of WPC, that’s industry speak for ‘wood plastic composite.’
They are created through a fusion process between wood fibres and thermoplastics, making them lightweight and extra durable, not to mention more ecofriendly than chopping down our precious native woodland!
In Ireland, WPC is often used to make outdoor decking, owing to its natural water-resistance, but more and more commonly it can be found in the feature walls and wainscot panelling of Irish interior design projects.
Benefits of Slat Wall Panels
- The most affordable wall panelling available on the Irish home improvement marketing
- Available in a small but carefully curated range of photorealistic wood finishes
- Made from durable and long-lasting wood plastic composite
- Super easy to install
- Click together tongue-and-groove design also makes these panels easy to work with
Cost of Slat Wall Panels
If budget is a primary concern of yours – and let’s face it, in these times who isn’t concerned about budget! – then you’ve come to the right place.
Our gorgeous range of slat wall panelling is the least expensive of the three panelling options we stock, at just €39.99/m2
Wainscoting
Wainscoting is one of the most enduring types of wall panelling on the market, having gained popularity during the Victorian era and remained popular ever since!
It is a half-height type of wall panel which, like all the rest of the panelling featured here, you can install directly on top of your existing walls with ease.
Wainscoting reaches hip height from the floor, running along your walls, up your stairs, or around your room to add texture, depth, and shape to any space.
Here at Tile Merchant we don’t stock wainscoting in and of itself, because we find a much more cost-effective alternative to be creating wainscoting out of the panels we already sell.
If you’re eager to add a wainscoting panel effect to your home – perhaps giving your Irish bathroom a Scandi inflection, or to protect the walls in your living room from furniture scratches and marks – then we recommend cutting our slat wall panelling or Woodlux wood panels in half and installing your new halves side-by-side.
For more advice on installation, see below, or give our dedicated Sales Team a call.
3D Wall Panels
3D wall panels are as they sound: a type of wall panelling with rich and varied textures which stand out from the wall, creating various 3D effects wherever they are installed.
These are a particularly bold type of wall panel which won’t suit every taste, budget, nor interior style, but which can still make a grand statement for those of you who really like to wow your guests!
Shiplap Wall Panels
Shiplap wall panels take their name both from the traditional location of their use and how they are installed.
Shiplap panelling is a style of panelling which was once most commonly found in the interiors of sailing vessels, whereby plain wooden planks are laid horizontally, one overlapping the other in a repeating pattern.
This style of laying the panels makes them easy to install, as each subsequent panel is secured in place by nailing the overlapping portion of the top plank to the hidden portion of the plank beneath. Perfect for recreating a superbly rustic home interior.
Beadboard Wall Panels
Beadboard wall panelling might at first look like slat wall or Woodlux wall panelling, yet it carries one almost imperceptible difference: in between each vertical slat is a thin protruding seam – or ‘bead’ – which gives beadboard panels their unique appearance.
Typically made from MDF, beadboard panels are also moisture resistant, relatively affordable, and easy to work with.
They are not, however, foil-wrapped for extra strength, watertightness and durability.
This makes them, in our opinion, an inferior product to our slat wall panelling.
Tongue and Groove Wall Panels
Various different interior types of wall panels can be designed with tongue-and-groove technology, making them easy to fit together and thus install DIY. However, there is also another type of wall panelling called ‘tongue and groove panelling.’
In reality, tongue and groove wall panels is more of an umbrella term encompassing the wide variety of panels which utilise this technology, and can be made from a huge range of materials – making the cost, durability, aesthetic quality and ease of installation greatly variable.
Nevertheless, this final type of wall panelling does afford us a neat segue into our guide’s final section...
How to Install Different Types of Wall Panelling
Whether you’ve decided to go for acoustic wall panels, Woodlux wood panels, or slatted wall panelling, you’ll be glad to hear that the installation process is easy enough to do by yourself, at home, without the help of a professional.
Of course, if you’d rather not do the manual labour, you can always turn to Tile Merchant to help guide you in the direction of a reputable installer (check our list of reputable installers in Ireland).
To install wall panelling and transform the look and feel of your home in a matter of hours, simply follow our 10 steps as outlined below.
You can also watch our video on how to install different types of wall panelling on YouTube!
- Measure the space you wish to renovate with wall panelling in m2.
- Decide on colour and design of your new wall panelling feature.
- Order enough of your chosen wall panelling to cover the area measured.
- Pro Tip: We always recommend ordering 10-20% more panelling than you think you’ll need, just in case you’ve miscalculated or create wastage during the installation process.
- You’ll also want to order any extras, like end pieces or dado rails to complete the look.
- Once your panels arrive, remeasure and cut any panels which need cutting to size.
- Lay your panels on the floor ready for installation.
- Next, apply a strong and fast-acting adhesive to the back of the first panel. We recommend something like the brilliant Bostik Turbo-Bond adhesive.
- Fix the first panel to the wall using the adhesive.
- Repeat the process, clicking each panel into the previous one using their revolutionary tongue-and-groove design.
- Finish off your installation with end pieces to cover any exposed MDF or WPC.
- Stand back and admire your creation!
Conclusion: How to Choose the Right Wall Panelling for Your Home
Choosing the right wall panelling for your home depends on your budget, your taste, the colours you’ve chosen for each new interior space, and whether or not you have any additional needs besides aesthetics (such as the need to improve sound quality). Not sure which wall panels is for you? Start by ordering free wall panels from our website here!
Of course, the right choice for you may even be a combination of the various different types of wall panels available from Tile Merchant!
Whatever panels you choose – be they acoustic, Woodlux, or WPC slat – we guarantee that you won’t be disappointed! Shop the Tile Merchant online range of wall panels today, or come and visit us in-store at one of our three fully-stocked showrooms.
A budget-friendly interior makeover is just around the corner!
Why Tile Merchant?
Tile Merchant Ireland offers extremely competitive pricing on our entire range of tiles and likewise.
Tile Merchant stocks a huge range of wall and floor tiles and our prices are competitive for retail and trade. Our stock is widely available in our tile stores in Dublin and Ashbourne (Co. Meath) which are open 7 days a week.
Alternatively, if you’d prefer to shop our tiles online, we can supply you with samples delivered for free.
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Article written by Calum
Cal Bannerman is a freelance writer, editor, podcaster and voice actor from the Scottish Borders. He runs the storytelling podcast "Stories from the Hearth" and lives in a wee Glasgow Flat with his partner and their cat".