Before you buy
Both end up on a wall. What differs is the backing, the module, the finish and who fits it. Here is the comparison in full, including the cases where the flat packed panel is the better buy.
The slat panels sold online in boxes are a standard product: thin slats bonded to a polyester felt backing, in a fixed module of roughly 240 by 60 cm, in a set catalogue of printed finishes. They are inexpensive, they arrive in days, and a careful DIYer can hang a small wall in an afternoon.
We make something different, and it costs more. The table below is what the money buys.
| Feature | Flat packed panel | Element Decor |
|---|---|---|
| Backing | Polyester felt | Painted MDF or the same veneer as the slats |
| Module | Fixed, about 60 cm wide, seams repeat across the wall | Cut to the wall we measured, no repeating module |
| Slat size | One profile, one spacing | Profile and spacing chosen for the size of the wall |
| Finish | Printed foil or laminate over a board core | Real veneer: walnut, white oak, blackened oak, Fineline, Shinoki, or veneer you supply |
| Colour | The catalogue range | Custom stains and tints, matched to a sample |
| Grain | Restarts at every module | Runs continuously across panel joints |
| Corners | Butt joint, slats stop at the corner | Mitred, the spacing carries around the corner |
| Sockets, TV, lighting | You cut into the panel on site | Set out on the drawing before anything is cut |
| Ceilings and soffits | Not rated for overhead use | Engineered and fixed for overhead runs |
| Fixing | Battens or adhesive onto the felt | Rigid backing takes a fixing anywhere on the panel |
| Who fits it | You or your contractor | Our own crew in Southern California, a crated dry fitted kit anywhere else |
| Before you commit | Photographs on a website | A 3D preview of your own room |
On a felt panel the gap between slats is fabric. Up close the eye reads texture where it expects shadow, and in raking light the felt goes grey rather than dark. Our backing is painted MDF or the same veneer as the slats, so the gap reads as depth.
There is a practical side too. Felt is a textile bonded to nothing structural, so fixings have to find a batten behind it. A rigid backing takes a screw anywhere: a shelf, a bracket, a television.
The flat packed panel is a fixed module. On a two metre wall you may never notice. On a six metre wall there are ten joints, they are evenly spaced whether the room wants them there or not, and they rarely land on a corner, a door head or the edge of a television.
We set the panel widths after measuring, so joints fall where the room already has a line.
A twelve millimetre slat at a fixed spacing looks right on a two and a half metre wall. Put the same slat on a four metre wall in a double height room and it reads thin, because proportion is relative to what surrounds it.
Slat width, depth and spacing are chosen per project. On large walls that is the difference between a feature and a texture.
