Acoustic wall panels colours: how to pick one you'll still like.
Hold three grey swatches against a wall in the morning and they look the same. Come back late afternoon and one has gone a bit blue, one a bit green and one looks like a wet pavement. Same greys. Different light.
That's the real worry with acoustic wall panels colours. You're committing a whole wall, sometimes a whole room, to a colour you've mostly seen on a phone. This guide goes through the colour families we make, what each one does to a room, which colours go with what and how to choose without guessing.
Does the colour of an acoustic panel change how it works?
No. The sound absorption comes from the felt itself, not the dye in it. Every colour we make is the same PET felt at the same thickness, so a black panel and a white one do the same job. Pick the colour for the room, not for the acoustics.
What does change the sound is thickness and how the panel is mounted. That's a different question, covered in our acoustic wall panels guide.
Acoustic wall panel colours at a glance.
We make felt panels in up to 48 colours. They fall into a few families. Here's the short version of each.
| Colour family | Best for | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|
| Light greys Light Grey, Silver Grey, Chrome |
Small or north-facing rooms. A calm backdrop | Can look cold under cool white bulbs |
| Mid greys Spring Grey, Pewter Grey, Ash Grey, Storm |
Living rooms and offices. Works with most schemes | Can look flat if everything else in the room is grey too |
| Dark greys Dark Silver, Slate Grey, Paynes Grey |
Media walls and feature walls | Needs decent lighting in a small room |
| Black | TV walls and home cinemas | Shows dust and lint soonest |
| Whites and creams White, Natural Cotton, Blanched Almond |
Brightening small rooms and hallways | Shows marks soonest |
| Greens Sage Green, Olive Green, Woodland Moss, Pine Green |
Living rooms and bedrooms with wood and plants | A strong green can take over a small room |
| Blues Steel Blue, Oxford Blue, Midnight Blue |
Home offices and bedrooms | Dark blues read almost black at night |
There are warm colours too: Wheat, Cinnamon, Tawny, Claret, Dark Rouge, Orange and Golden Sunset among them. In the right room they make a strong feature wall.
Grey acoustic wall panels: which grey?
Grey is one of the most searched-for panel colours, and there's a reason. It goes with oak floors, white walls, black frames and most sofas. Grey gets picked by people who can't decide. That isn't an insult. It's why it works.
The catch is that "grey" covers a lot of ground. We make ten of them, from Light Grey through Silver Grey, Chrome, Spring Grey, Dark Silver, Pewter Grey, Ash Grey, Storm and Slate Grey to Paynes Grey. Some lean cool and some lean warm, and that lean is what shows up when the light changes.
- Light greys keep a small room feeling open and read as a soft texture rather than a colour.
- Mid greys are the safe middle. They hide everyday marks better than the light end and don't darken a room the way the deep end does.
- Dark grey acoustic wall panels do the job people often want black for, behind a TV or as one feature wall, without going all the way.
If you're torn between two, order both in the sample pack and look at them at different times of day. One of them will start to bother you.
Black acoustic wall panels.
Black recedes. On a media wall it frames the screen and makes the TV look like it belongs there rather than hanging in space. In a home cinema it stops the wall reflecting light back at the screen, which is half the point of a cinema room.
Here's the honest bit. Black felt shows dust and lint sooner than any other colour. It isn't hard to look after. A light vacuum with a brush head every so often keeps it right. But if you want a wall you never think about, a dark grey gives you most of the look with less upkeep.
White acoustic wall panels.
White and the creams next to it, Natural Cotton and Blanched Almond, brighten a room. They suit small bedrooms, hallways and rooms that don't get much daylight, where a dark wall would close the space in.
White is also the colour that shows marks first, especially at hand height and behind chairs. Most marks come off with a mild detergent solution, blotted rather than rubbed, then rinsed with clean warm water. If the wall is in a busy spot, a cream or a light grey forgives more.
Green and blue acoustic wall panels.
Green is the colour people pick when they want the wall to feel like a decision. Sage Green and Olive Green sit well with wood, plants and brass. Woodland Moss and Pine Green go deeper and look good behind a sofa or a bed.
Blue acoustic wall panels suit rooms where you want to concentrate or wind down. Steel Blue is the gentle end. Oxford Blue and Midnight Blue are deep and calm. They work well in a home office or a bedroom. At night under warm bulbs the darker blues can read almost black, which some people love and some don't.
What colours go with acoustic wall panels?
Start with what isn't changing. The floor, the kitchen, the big sofa and the window frames are staying, so pick a panel colour that sits well with those rather than with the paint, which you can change on a Saturday.
- Warm wood floors (oak, walnut) suit greens, warm greys, creams and the warm colours.
- Cool floors (grey tiles, grey laminate, concrete) suit cool greys, blues and white.
- Look at undertones. A grey with a green lean next to a grey sofa with a blue lean can look slightly off without anyone knowing why. Hold the swatch against the sofa, not just the wall.
- Contrast on purpose. A clear contrast, like Sage Green with oak or Black with a pale wall, looks deliberate. A near-match can look like you tried to match and missed.
Should panelling be lighter or darker than the wall?
Either works. It depends on what you want the wall to do. Lighter than the surrounding walls and the panelling blends in, which suits a small room or a wall you want to feel bigger. Darker and it becomes the feature, which suits a TV wall, a wall behind a bed or a long room you want to feel shorter.
Light matters as much as size. A north-facing room gets cooler, flatter light, so a dark colour there can feel heavy. A south-facing room can take a dark wall more easily because the daylight is warmer and stronger. If the room is small and dark, go lighter. If it's big and bright, you have more freedom.
Which colour for which room.
Living room
Mid greys, greens and warm colours. This is the room most people treat first, usually the wall behind or opposite the sofa. If you want the line of a slat wall in a colour of your own, see our V-groove felt feature wall.
Bedroom
Calm colours: light greys, creams, Sage Green and the deeper blues. A full-width run behind the bed doubles as a headboard.
Home office
Something that looks good behind you on camera without pulling focus: mid greys, Steel Blue, Oxford Blue or a muted green. Very bright colours can be a lot to look at all day.
Media room or home cinema
Black, Paynes Grey or Midnight Blue. Dark walls stop light bouncing back at the screen.
Colours that won't date.
We'd rather not tell you what's fashionable. A colour picked because it's in this year can look like it was picked because it was in that year. What lasts is a colour that suits the things in the room that aren't moving. Neutrals that match your floor, greens that go with your wood, a dark wall that frames your TV. Choose for the room and it won't date as fast.
If you want to change things later, Button-fix lets panels pull off the wall again. See our wall panels guide for fixing options.
Can I mix colours?
Yes. Every panel is one colour, so you can alternate two colours or split a wall into blocks. Tiles make it easier still. Each pack of wall tiles is one colour, so a pattern in two or three colours is just a pack of each. The wall tiles guide shows the shapes and the patterns they make.
12mm or 24mm: which colours come in which.
12mm felt comes in all 48 colours. 24mm comes in 20: White, Wheat, Light Grey, Silver Grey, Dark Silver, Slate Grey, Slate Marble, Black, Orange, Cinnamon, Dark Rouge, Tea Green, Apple Green, Sage Green, Olive Green, Pine Green, Blue Jay, Cornflower Blue, Oxford Blue and Midnight Blue.
Once a wall is fully clad, the two thicknesses look the same from the front. 24mm is fully pinnable, so it doubles as a noticeboard, which is handy in a home office or a child's room. If your colour is only in 12mm, that settles it.
See it in your own light.
Phone and laptop screens are loose with colour, and every room's light is different. The sample pack is up to six A5 swatches for £12.95. Tape them to the wall you're treating and live with them for a few days. Check them in the morning, in the evening and under your lamps. The one you still like on day three is the one.
Questions we get asked.
Can I get a colour that isn't in the range?
Yes. We can match a RAL colour, subject to a minimum order at the factory.
Will a white wall show dirt?
Sooner than a darker colour, yes. Light vacuuming keeps dust down, and most marks come off with a mild detergent solution, blotted not rubbed.
Is there a downside to acoustic wall panels?
Two worth knowing. They soften echo in your room but don't stop sound passing through a wall, so they won't fix a noisy neighbour. And dark felt shows dust and lint sooner. If echo is your problem, start with how to reduce echo in a room.
Does colour affect how well they absorb sound?
No. Every colour is the same felt, so the acoustic figures don't change with colour.
Can I see all 48 colours?
They're on every product page and in the wall panels guide PDF. For colour you can trust, order the sample pack.
If you're stuck between two colours, send us a message with a photo of the room. We'll tell you which one we'd pick, and why. Then you can ignore us.
