Installation Guides

Help Centre

Fitting guides for every panel system we sell. Pick your product below to open the full step-by-step on our blog. If anything isn’t clear, ask us first.

PVC Panels

Tongue-and-groove PVC wall and shower panels. Fully waterproof, suitable for wet rooms, bathrooms, kitchens and utility spaces. Fitted with adhesive directly to studwork, battens or a sound existing wall.

Main guide

How to fit PVC wall panels in a bathroom

Self-install method covering acclimatisation, trims, adhesive, panel sequence and silicone sealing.

Shower areas

How to install shower wall panels

Watertight install for shower enclosures and wet zones. Trims, sealing sequence, and where the silicone has to go.

Fitting over tiles

Fitting wall panels over existing tiles

Sanding the tile surface, adhesive choice and surface prep so panels bond reliably to a glazed wall.

Adhesive choice

The best adhesive for PVC wall panels

Why solvent-free panel adhesive is the only safe option, and which products we recommend.

Acoustic Slat Panels

Wood-effect veneer slats on a felt-backed MDF board. The felt absorbs sound and the slats add warmth. Interior use, dry rooms only. For wet zones use our Waterproof 3D Slat panels instead.

Main guide

How to install acoustic slat wall panels

Cutting from the felt side, screw-fixing through the felt gaps, butting panels so the slat rhythm reads continuous.

MDF Panel Mouldings

Shaker, wainscoting and board-and-batten style mouldings, fixed directly to a painted plaster wall to create traditional panelling. Interior, dry rooms.

Main guide

How to panel a wall: 7-step DIY guide

The full method: marking the layout, cutting on a mitre saw, grab adhesive, pinning, filling, caulking and painting.

Adhesive-free method

Installing wall panels without adhesive

Fixing with screws, nails or pins. Useful for rented homes, repaintable walls, or surfaces where adhesive isn’t practical.

Finishing

How to paint wall panelling

Coat sequence for primed, undercoated and unprimed mouldings. Brush vs roller, and how to handle repaints.

Special application

How to panel a door

Turning a flush door into a panelled one with mouldings. Layout, cut list and finishing.

Special application

How to panel a staircase wall

Working with the rake of the stairs. Includes the calculator for plotting moulding positions on a sloped run, plus dado integration.

MDF Wall Panelling Strips

Thin, narrow MDF sections used to build shaker squares, board-and-batten or geometric grids on the wall. Fitting is the same as panel mouldings - the work is in planning the layout.

Fitting method

How to panel a wall: 7-step DIY guide

The same technique as panel mouldings - mark out, cut, adhesive, pin, fill, caulk, paint. Strips just give you thinner sections to work with.

Layout calculator

Square shaker panelling calculator

Visualise the design and get a strip-by-strip cut list sized to your exact wall.

Layout calculator

Board and batten calculator

For vertical batten layouts. Sets your spacing and quantities from one wall measurement.

Dado Rails

Horizontal mouldings that run the length of a wall at waist height (typically 900mm). Fitted as a standalone feature or as the anchor for a panelling scheme. The fitting method is covered inside our staircase and wall panelling guides.

Main fitting context

How to panel a staircase wall

Includes dado fitting on both flat and sloped runs - mitring at corners, scarf-jointing long runs, level lines on imperfect walls.

Wider context

How to panel a wall: 7-step DIY guide

Same fixing technique - grab adhesive, brad nails into studs, decorators’ caulk along both edges, fill, sand, paint.

MDF Shelves

Made-to-order MDF shelf boards. A shelf carries weight, so the fixing is the part that matters most - studs first, plasterboard anchors only for light loads.

Suitability and load

MDF shelves: structural integrity and suitability

What MDF can and can’t carry, span limits, and when to step up to a deeper or thicker board.

Fitting note

A dedicated fitting guide for shelves is on our list. Until it’s published: locate studs with a detector, mark a level line at each stud (don’t reference the floor or skirting), fix concealed brackets or proprietary shelf supports rated for the load, and caulk the back edge once the shelf is in place. For anything carrying more than display weight, fix into studs or use heavy-duty plasterboard anchors.

MDF Panelling Kits

A complete set of mouldings, strips and (sometimes) a dado rail, pre-cut to your wall dimensions. Fitting is the same as MDF panel mouldings - you’re following a supplied layout drawing rather than planning one.

What’s in the kit

Wall panelling kits: everything you need to know

How kits are configured, what arrives in the box, and how the layout drawing relates to your wall.

Fitting method

How to panel a wall: 7-step DIY guide

Use this as the step-by-step. The kit just removes the cutting and layout work - the adhesive, pinning, filling, caulking and painting sequence is identical.

Fitting question we haven’t answered? Send a photo and we’ll reply the same working day.

0121 661 1500 info@wallpanelsworld.co.uk