Wood Veneer Junction Slat Panels Are an Easy Home Office Upgrade

As someone who has painted walls in nearly every apartment I’ve lived in as an adult, I can say that painting is disgusting. Over the years I’ve learned tricks to get the job done faster (I even have a set of paint tools!), but it’s a long, tedious process that can take longer than you’d expect.

Last year I had the privilege of owning a home, and of course, the Great Algorithm noticed all kinds of home improvement projects, products, and services and started copying them to my Instagram. (Did you know you can get a free roof replacement? Yes, it sounds too good to be true.) One caught my eye, but—Wood Cladding Junction. After ad passed through my feed, I saw ad showcasing home fixtures with a beautiful wooden wall accent wall. It was exactly my kind of aesthetic.

The company promises easy installation—a room makeover that won’t take a day of laborious painting—and it largely delivers. As WIRED’s resident home office product tester, I decided to put these panels to the test my office. I did standing desks, office chairs, web camerastable lamps and even filing cabinets, but I’ve never experimented with anything that would drastically change the look of my space.

Fairly Easy Installation

Wood Veneer Hub’s Slatpanels, as they’re called, consist of strips of medium-density fiberboard attached to a recycled felt material with sound dampening properties. Each box contains two Slatpanels with approximately nine slats per panel – you will need to measure your walls (or ceiling!) to find the required size. You can choose between No Finish or Oil Finish, and I recommend the latter – it costs a little more, but saves you the hassle of finishing and protects the wood.

I decided to try them on one wall in my home office, as an accent wall. It took about 13 Slatpanels (seven boxes were sent to me, so I had one spare Slatpanel left) and I attached them to the studs. You can mount them on top of your baseboard, but I decided it looked better without my baseboard, so I removed it. There is a small gap between the panels and my floor, but it’s hardly noticeable. It also meant that I didn’t need to cut the panels (except for the outlets and light switches).

This is the hard part – cutting the holes. I had to cut a few holes for the outlets, light switch, and light fixture. If you own a chainsaw, you’re already in a better place than I am. I had a simple handsaw and no workbench, so it was difficult to make straight lines when cutting the pieces. I used it Milwaukee Fastback cut the knife from the felt side first and it did a surprisingly good job. Be smarter than me and use a long level or ruler and tape it to the panels to keep those lines straight. Thankfully, you have to look closely to see how crooked my holes are, or so I tell myself.