Most wood wall projects follow the same pattern. Vertical slats, walnut or oak, feature wall behind the sofa. We build those. But some projects come in with a problem nobody has solved before. These are five of them, with the specific details of how each one was built.
1. A parametric ceiling that resolves at every edge
The client had seen parametric walls before and hated one thing about all of them: the pattern looked tiled. You could see where one module ended and the next began. The geometry never resolved cleanly at the corners or the ceiling line.
We generated the pattern from scratch for the exact dimensions of that room. The CNC program was written for that wall and no other. Every facet starts and stops where the wall starts and stops. The result reads as one continuous surface. The shadow lines shift as the light moves through the day. The room looks different at noon than it does at six in the evening.
Technical note: the design phase took longer than the fabrication. Most of the cost in a parametric project is in the geometry, not the cutting. A generated pattern costs more than a tiled one because it requires a designer, not just a CNC operator.
2. A room divider finished on both sides
A freestanding divider in a Venice Beach loft needed to work as a design element from both the living area and the dining area. Standard slats on felt only look intentional from one side. The felt reads as a backing material, not a finish surface.
We built this with a veneered backer in the same white oak as the slats, book-matched so the grain ran continuously across the full width. From the living side you see the slat rhythm and the shadow lines. From the dining side you see a flat oak surface with the slat edges reading as a subtle texture. Both sides are finished. Neither side looks like the back of something.
The engineering problem: keeping the assembly rigid without a wall to fix to, across a six-foot span in a space with coastal humidity. We used a steel substructure inside the panel stack, hidden entirely within the depth of the slats. The divider is freestanding and does not move.
3. Slat panels on a curved wall
A Brentwood house had a curved entry wall. Not a tight radius, but enough that flat panels would gap at the edges or telegraph the facets. The client wanted slats. Flat panels on a curved wall show every facet as a straight line against a curved surface.
We kerfed the backer panels at intervals calculated for the radius of that specific wall. Kerfing means cutting parallel slots partway through the panel so it bends without breaking the face. The slat spacing was adjusted slightly to keep the shadow lines even as the panel curves. Installation required templating the wall in sections and fitting each panel to its exact position before anything was fixed.
From three feet away it reads as a continuous curved slat surface. The seams are not visible. The slat lines follow the arc without any straight segments showing.
4. A media wall where the TV disappears
The request was a walnut slat wall with a 77-inch TV that was invisible when off. Not behind a door. Not covered by a sliding panel. Invisible, meaning the screen sat flush with the slat plane and the slats continued across it.
We coordinated the slat spacing with the exact bezel dimensions of that specific TV model. The slats were laid out so no slat crossed the screen edge. We routed channels in the backer for power and HDMI before the panels went up. A subframe held the screen at precisely the right depth so the slat faces were coplanar with the screen face within one millimeter.
When the TV is off, the black screen reads as a shadow gap in the slat pattern. The detail that made it work: slightly deeper slats in the zone around the screen cast a stronger shadow, so the screen edge disappears into the shadow line rather than reading as a seam. When the TV is on, the slats frame it.
5. Acoustic panels behind a perforated brass face
A recording studio in Silver Lake needed serious acoustic treatment on one wall and a surface that looked like it belonged in the room rather than in a treatment facility. The client had strong opinions about foam tiles.
We built a layered assembly. From back to front: dense mineral wool backer for low and mid-frequency absorption, a perforated MDF substrate to let sound pass through, and a blackened brass sheet face with a geometric perforation pattern laser-cut to the wall dimensions. The brass is the finish surface. The acoustic work happens behind it. From the room it reads as a metal feature wall.
The perforation pattern required three rounds of prototyping. The open area percentage had to hit the acoustic target while the visual pattern stayed coherent at room scale. Too much open area and the pattern disappears. Too little and the absorption drops. The final version has 34% open area in a pattern that reads as intentional geometry from across the room.
What these projects have in common
None of them started with a product. All of them started with a problem: a wall that curves, a divider that needs two finished faces, a television that should not exist when it is off, a studio that needs to perform acoustically without looking like it does. The material and the method followed from the problem.
FAQ
Can you build a slat wall on a curved surface? Yes. We kerf the backer panels to the radius of your specific wall. The result reads as a continuous curved surface with no visible facets.
Can a TV be hidden behind a slat wall? Yes, if the slat spacing is coordinated with the bezel dimensions of the specific TV model and the screen is mounted at the correct depth. The screen reads as a shadow gap when off.
What is a parametric wood wall? A parametric wall is one where the geometry is generated for the specific dimensions of your room, so the pattern starts and stops correctly at every edge. It is not tiled from a repeating module.
Do you ship custom wood wall panels nationwide? Yes. We fabricate in Los Angeles and ship to all US states as a labeled, dry-fitted kit with shop drawings and installation instructions.
Send us your wall dimensions and a photo. Tell us what the wall needs to do. We will come back with a 3D visualization and a fabrication approach.
Related reading: 10 details that separate a $200/sqft wall from an $80/sqft wall — How long does it take to get custom wood wall panels — How to install wood slat wall panels
