Acoustic wall panels: the complete guide to a quieter office

Acoustic wall panels are sound-absorbing wall elements made from PET felt, a material pressed from recycled and recyclable polyester fibres. Instead of letting sound waves bounce off a hard surface, the open felt structure absorbs part of the sound energy and converts it into a small amount of heat, so less sound reflects back into the room.

Chameleon’s acoustic range covers two thicknesses: 9 mm panels (used in Sharp, Curve, Round and Pebbles Acoustics, and in the Sharp Wall and Curve Wall Acoustics wall-covering lines) and 18 mm panels (used in Divider Panels and the Layer/V-Layer range). Both are through-dyed, so the colour runs through the full thickness of the felt rather than sitting on the surface, and both carry the EN13501 class B-s1, d0 fire safety rating and a two-year warranty.

The term “acoustic wall panels” is often used loosely to cover several different products, which is where a lot of confusion starts when specifying a project. In Chameleon’s range it spans loose, individually mounted shapes; wall-filling coverings that read as one continuous surface; and ceiling-hung dividers that add absorption without touching a wall at all. All three share the same underlying material and the same colour palette, so the choice between them is really a choice about flexibility, permanence and where in the room the sound problem actually sits, not a trade-off in acoustic quality. For a closer look at the felt itself, including sustainability and custom options, see our complete guide to felt acoustic panels.

Absorption performance is expressed as αw, a weighted absorption coefficient between 0 and 1: the higher the number, the more sound energy the panel absorbs rather than reflects. The two thicknesses perform differently, and both improve significantly depending on how far the panel sits from the wall:

• 9 mm acoustic panels: αw 0.25 mounted flat against the wall, rising to αw 0.55 with a 50 mm air gap, and αw 0.75 with a 100 mm air gap
• 18 mm acoustic panels: αw 0.45 flat against the wall, rising to αw 0.75 with a 50 mm air gap, and αw 0.80 with a 100 mm air gap

The detail that surprises most people: the air gap behind the panel affects absorption roughly as much as the panel’s own thickness does. Mounting a 9 mm panel with a 100 mm air gap can outperform an 18 mm panel mounted flat against the wall. This is worth discussing with your supplier before you assume a thicker panel is automatically the better choice.

It helps to think of αw the same way you’d think of a fuel-efficiency rating: it’s a single number that summarises how a panel performs across a range of frequencies, tested according to the European standard. A higher number means a larger share of the sound energy hitting the panel is absorbed rather than sent back into the room. For everyday office and school use, the practical takeaway is simple: if a wall genuinely needs to feel quieter rather than just look treated, ask your supplier about the air gap, not just the panel thickness on the spec sheet.

Not every acoustic problem needs the same solution. Three formats cover most office and school situations:

• Individual acoustic panels (Sharp, Curve, Round, Pebbles Acoustics): loose, magnet-mounted shapes for targeted absorption on a meeting room wall or behind a reception desk, easy to reposition or reuse if the space changes
• Wall-filling acoustic covering (Sharp Wall, Curve Wall Acoustics, or a full 9 mm Single Layer surface): a continuous, seamless finish glued to the wall with adhesive, suited to open-plan offices or corridors where the whole wall needs treatment
• Ceiling-hung Divider Panels: 18 mm panels suspended on adjustable steel wire up to 2 metres, used as room dividers or to add absorption above a space without touching the walls at all

Many offices combine formats: individual panels where flexibility matters, wall covering where a permanent finish makes sense, and dividers to break up an open floor without adding walls.

The right format also depends on how often the room’s layout changes. A project space or a training room that gets reconfigured regularly benefits from magnet-mounted individual panels, since they can be lifted off and reused elsewhere without any trace on the wall. A reception area or a corridor, by contrast, rarely changes shape, so a permanently glued, wall-filling covering makes more sense and gives a cleaner, more finished look than a scatter of separate panels.

Reverberation is not evenly distributed through a building; some rooms need it far more than others:

• Meeting and boardrooms: hard tables and glass amplify voices, making video calls tiring for everyone on the line
• Open-plan offices: the biggest source of complaints in workplace surveys, since sound travels unchecked across long, flat, hard surfaces
• Reception and waiting areas: often finished in stone, glass and concrete, exactly the combination that produces the most reflection
• Classrooms and lecture halls: reverberation directly affects speech intelligibility, which matters for both teachers and students
• Call centres and phone booths: even a single hexagon or circle panel can noticeably cut echo in a small enclosed space
• Canteens and break rooms: hard flooring and tall ceilings combine to make casual conversation surprisingly loud
• Corridors and stairwells: long hard surfaces carry sound much further than most people expect
• Home offices: acoustic panels for office use at home reduce echo on video calls without needing structural changes

In most buildings, treating even two or three of these spaces first, typically the open-plan floor and the main meeting rooms, delivers a noticeably bigger improvement in day-to-day comfort than spreading a thin layer of panels evenly across every room. It’s worth walking the building and noting where conversations feel like they carry too far, or where video calls consistently sound echoey, before deciding where the budget goes.

Acoustic panels don’t have to look purely functional. Chameleon’s Curve and Curve Wall Acoustics use rounded, organic forms, while the Creatives line offers 8 patterns, including hexagon and circle layouts, across a 240 x 480 cm wall design. Hexagon acoustic wall panels and circle acoustic panels are popular where the wall itself should read as a design feature rather than a technical fix, for example in a reception area or a branded meeting room.

Decorative acoustic panels use the same PET felt and the same absorption performance as the plainer ranges; the difference is purely the shape and layout, so choosing a decorative pattern never means compromising on sound absorption.

How a panel is fixed to the wall depends on the product line, not personal preference, so it’s worth checking before you specify:

• Magnet, on a steel backing: used for individual elements such as Sharp, Curve, Round and Pebbles Acoustics, the same system as Chameleon whiteboards, which makes panels easy to relocate or reuse
• Adhesive (kit): used for wall-filling coverings such as 9 mm Single Layer, Sharp Wall and Curve Wall Acoustics, giving a permanent, seamless finish that isn’t meant to be moved
• Velcro: used for the Creatives line, including hexagon and circle patterns, and for Education Panels
• Steel wire: used for ceiling-hung Divider Panels, adjustable up to 2 metres, suitable for both solid and suspended ceilings

Getting the mounting method right at the specification stage matters more than it might seem: a magnet-mounted panel needs a steel backing plate built into the wall or substructure, while an adhesive-mounted covering needs a smooth, clean, dust-free surface to bond properly. Raising this with your supplier before installation day avoids delays on site, especially on older or uneven walls.

Acoustic wall panels aren’t the only way to reduce reverberation, so it’s worth understanding where they fit against the alternatives. Acoustic ceiling baffles hang from the ceiling and work well in rooms with a lot of open floor and limited wall space, such as large canteens or warehouses converted into offices, but they don’t add the same visual warmth to a meeting room wall. Soft furnishings, such as carpets and upholstered furniture, help marginally but rarely provide enough absorption on their own in a room with mostly hard, flat surfaces. Acoustic wall panels sit between these options: they treat the walls directly, where most reflection actually originates in a typical office, and unlike ceiling baffles they can double as a genuine design feature rather than a purely technical fix.

The full acoustic range is available in 23 colourfast colours, from neutral tones such as White and Calm grey to stronger accents such as Magma and Ocean green, all sharing one palette so panels, wall covering and dividers can be combined without a visible colour mismatch. The felt is made from 100% recyclable PET, with 50 to 60% recycled content depending on the product, so the material stays genuinely circular rather than being recyclable in name only.

Acoustics and writable surfaces don’t have to compete for the same wall. Chameleon’s Curve Wall Combi and Sharp Wall Combi bring a ceramic steel whiteboard surface and acoustic PET felt together into one wall-filling solution, so a meeting room gets a genuinely usable writing surface and reduced reverberation from the same installation, rather than treating them as two separate projects.

Pricing depends on several factors rather than a single per-panel rate, so we won’t quote a figure that doesn’t hold up across projects. What genuinely moves the price:

• Panel thickness: 9 mm versus 18 mm
• Format: individual panels versus a wall-filling covering versus ceiling-hung dividers
• Coverage area and how much of the wall needs treatment
• Shape complexity, since a decorative hexagon or circle layout takes more cutting than a plain rectangular tile
• Mounting method and any additional substructure the wall requires

The honest way to get an accurate figure is a short conversation with our team about the room and the finish you want, rather than a generic price list that won’t reflect your actual wall.

It’s also worth budgeting for the substructure where one is needed, not just the panels themselves: a magnet-mounted system needs a steel backing plate, and an adhesive-mounted covering needs proper wall preparation. Skipping this step is one of the more common reasons an acoustic project ends up more expensive than the original panel quote suggested, so it’s worth asking about it explicitly at the quoting stage rather than after the order is placed.

Specifying acoustic wall panels usually comes down to five questions: which rooms need treatment, individual panels or a full covering, which colour and pattern fit the space, magnet, adhesive, velcro or steel wire mounting, and how much of the wall should be covered. For larger or architecturally led projects, our team works directly with architects and interior designers to translate these answers into a finished specification, rather than leaving it to guesswork. Once those five questions are answered, we typically provide a room-specific quote, followed by an installation plan and, for wall-filling coverings, a check of the wall surface itself before the material is ordered and cut.

PET felt acoustic panels need very little upkeep: a light vacuum or dusting keeps the surface clean, and the through-dyed colour means minor surface marks don’t expose a different colour underneath. Magnet-mounted panels can be taken down individually for cleaning or replacement without disturbing the rest of the wall. For a full walkthrough, see our guide on how to properly maintain Chameleon PET felt.

What is the difference between acoustic wall panels and acoustic wall covering?

Do thicker acoustic panels always absorb more sound?

What material are Chameleon acoustic panels made from?

How many colours are available?

How are acoustic wall panels mounted?

Can acoustic panels be combined with a whiteboard?

What fire rating do the panels have?

How much do acoustic wall panels cost?

Explore the full range on our acoustic wall panels page, or get in touch with our team for advice tailored to your room.