Wall panelling

What this is, and what it is not

Decorative wall panelling in MDF, cut and fitted to your room: dado, full height, shaker grid or slatted. It is joinery, fixed to the wall, filled and sanded ready for paint.

It is not bathroom or shower panelling. Those are waterproof plastic sheets sold by the square metre, and a merchant will serve you better than we will. Search for panelling around Bridgend and most of what comes back is somewhere to buy boards. This page is about someone fitting them.

The four types, and which room takes which

Dado panelling stops around 1000mm off the floor and suits a hallway or a staircase, where the bottom third of the wall takes all the knocks.

Full height runs floor to ceiling and works on one wall, usually behind a bed or a sofa. On all four walls it closes a room in.

A shaker grid is square framing across the whole wall. It needs a ceiling above about 2.4m to read properly, which rules out a lot of newer rooms.

Slatted is vertical battens on a backing board. It reads warmer and modern, and it is the one most often asked for by photograph.

Set out from the room, not from the boards

This is the whole difference between panelling that looks fitted and panelling that looks stuck on.

The wall gets measured first, then a panel width is chosen that divides into it evenly, usually between 400mm and 600mm. Only then is anything cut. The layout is set around the sockets, the radiator and the chimney breast before the first length goes on the wall, because those are the things that make a run look wrong.

Sockets normally need bringing forward onto the new face. That is electrical work and it is certified separately by an electrician.

On a staircase the run is set to the pitch of the flight rather than to the floor. Set to the floor, the panels fan out as they climb and you cannot unsee it.

What changes the price

Four things. How many cuts the layout needs around doors and openings. Whether the skirting is deep enough to keep or has to be changed. Whether sockets are moving. And the wall itself, because a bowed wall in an older house needs packing out before anything is fixed to it.

The houses we panel around here

Older Bridgend and Cowbridge houses have the ceiling height for full height panelling and the bowed walls that need packing. The newer Brackla and Broadlands rooms are square and quick, but the ceilings are lower, so dado usually sits better than a shaker grid.

We measure and price it either way and tell you which we would do in your room.

Common questions

Do you paint it, or does my decorator?

Either. As standard we fill, caulk and sand it ready for paint. If you would rather we painted it, say so at the measure-up so it is in the price rather than a conversation at the end.

What happens with the sockets and the radiator?

The panel layout gets set out around them before anything is cut. Sockets usually need bringing forward onto the new face, which is electrical work and gets done by an electrician. Radiators sometimes need dropping off the wall for a day.

Can you panel a staircase?

Yes, and it is the job most likely to go wrong. The run has to be set out to the pitch of the flight rather than to the floor, or the panels visibly fan out as they climb. Done properly it is the best-looking panelling in the house.

Does the existing skirting come off?

Not always. If it is deep enough and in good order the panelling can sit on it. If it is shallow or damaged, changing it while the room is already apart is the cheap moment to do it.

How long does a room take?

A single feature wall is usually a day. A full room, or a hall, stairs and landing, is more, and it depends on how many cuts the layout needs around doors and openings. You get that figure in writing before we start.