Dimensional Wall Panels

   Over time it became clear that our staircase needed a little something extra to stand out in it's all-white surroundings. We followed a similar program to our last remodel, the drywall was simply repaired, and painted white. The handrail was a rather plain Honey Oak stain that was ubiquitous in the 1990's.

   Our inspiration came from a serving bowl made out of Acacia, this species of wood has a wide range of natural tones that complemented the existing trim color very nicely. This find led me to researching exotic wood building materials, and I discovered these Acacia dimensional wall panels.
   This particular panel system was advertised as peel and stick, but that was a little deceptive. The panels took a fair amount of manipulation to actually achieve a professional look. That desire to reach a tight, modern standard pushes this product to its very limits, and requires many more hours of finesse work to achieve those results. A far cry from just slapping it up on a Sunday afternoon.
   As always, you should inspect the entire shipment, not just the top box on the pallet. The product delivered was far below the quality advertised in the two samples I had previously received. The specs were also wrong, resulting in much shorter pieces, and twice the number of seams in the field. Not necessarily a bad thing, just not what we had planned on for the initial installation. The layout had to be well thought out in order to disguise the additional seams.

   Several reviewers had suggested using adhesive and fasteners along with the included double-sided tape. I recommend following the same practice, I used PL375 for the construction adhesive and a staple gun with 5/8" brads to tack the edges hidden by the overlapping seams. Another essential tool was a thin putty knife. There are situations where it makes more sense to pop off one of the individual strips just to ease the panel into place. This was especially true when basket weaving the corner seams.

   I am proud of the final result, however the product looks good because of my attention to detail and working at a consistent level through completion. To be fair, I chose a very large wall. I also wanted it to wrap inside a corner, which the company did not demonstrate, or represent as possible. I would not discourage using this product, I just want you to have a realistic expectation of the time and labor involved when deciding whether to try it out for yourself.