Many of us have been spending quite a bit of time at home lately. If you've noticed that your full house is a lot noisier than your empty house, the addition of felt, fabric or some other cushioning to your space could keep things a bit calmer. It could also provide you with the chance to add a little color to a plain spot.
Warmth
Quite possible the oldest DIY hack for updating a space without making a permanent change was the addition of tapestries to a space. The tapestries were pretty, but the space behind them was what kept the space cozy. If you've got a plain wall on the north side of your dwelling that radiates cold in the middle of winter, the addition of an air gap and wood, felt or fabric can keep the space a lot more comfortable.
You'll need to affix a spacer to the wall, often just a 1 x 2 or 2 x 2 from floor to ceiling, then add your planking so you have a spot to affix self adhesive tiles. Once the spacers are in place, the sky's the limit. Make sure that you don't cover any outlets, and if you have to, mark them on the planking so nobody sinks a screw into it. Moving the outlet is an option if you hire a trained professional.
Sound-Proofing
Walls that are hard and smooth bounce sound around; walls that are soft or textured reduce the bounce. You can add texture warmth and acoustics to any wall with felt wall tiles. Decorating with felt pixel art or squares can add beauty and sound dampening to your space.
While you're working on spots to break up wall expanses, don't forget about ceiling acoustics. Many of us with vaulted ceilings or great rooms find that the echo gets old. The addition of tiles or texture in this setting is also an option, as is the hanging of fabric or banners.
Felt or Fabric?
You can purchase felt wall tile in a variety of colors and patterns. Many of these self adhesive tiles can be easily and quickly peeled and stuck to any space, once you've measured to determine your starting point. If you get tiles with a pattern, you can also cut the felt tiles along the pressed pattern lines, so your color options are nearly endless. Once cut, felt tiles can add texture warmth and acoustics to any wall. If you're also concerned about ceiling acoustics, test drive the space with the wall tiles. They may be enough.
As anyone interested in DIY can tell you, square is relative. Measure and use a level to determine where the top of your felt or fabric accent wall should go. Pencil it in. Don't line it up in the corner and work out; what the tape measure says and angle are two very different things when creating a sound dampening panel.
If you've never tiled before, take a tip from the folks who do showers, bathroom, and the like: Set your straight line for your felt soundproofing panels at a comfortable visual height for you. Measure carefully and confirm that the bottom tile will need to be cut at a little more than half. Using a level, mark the top of your straight line and work your way up and down from that line.
If you're going from corner to corner, try to make sure that each edge where the room corners meet will also be about 1/2 tile. Full tiles on one side and a sliver (or worse, a gap) really won't look good. If you have an open edge, such as a knee wall on the second floor, use that as your starting point but try to find tiles that are big enough that the corner pieces are about half a tile.
