The Wood Veneer Hub’s slatted panels are an easy upgrade for your home office

As someone who has painted the walls in almost every apartment I’ve lived in as an adult, let me say that painting sucks. I’ve learned tricks over the years to finish the job faster (I even have a set of paint tools!), but it’s still a long and annoying process that can take longer than you expect.

Last year, I had the privilege of becoming a homeowner, and naturally I noticed Great Algorithm and started posting all kinds of home renovation projects, products, and services on my Instagram account. (Did you know you can get a replacement roof for free? Yes, it sounds too good to be true.) However, one caught my eye —Wood veneer axis. I’ve seen ad after ad creeping through my feed featuring home settings with a beautiful wood wall. It was exactly my type of aesthetic.

The company promises easy installation – a room makeover that won’t take a hard day of painting, and it pretty much delivers the desired results. As one of WIRED’s home office product testers, I decided to give these panels a try My office. I did Standing desks, Office chairs, Webcamsdesk lamps, and even filing cabinets, but I’ve never experienced anything that would radically change the look of my space.

Fairly easy installation

The Wood Veneer Hub’s wood panels, as they’re called, consist of strips of medium-density fiberboard bonded to a recycled felt material with soundproofing properties. Each box contains two flat panels with about nine strips per panel – you’ll need to measure your walls (or ceiling!) to find the size needed. You can choose between a ‘no finish’ or an ‘oiled finish’ option, and I suggest the latter – it costs a little more but saves you the hassle of applying the finish and protects the wood.

I decided to try it on one of the walls in my home office, like a feature wall. It took about 13 boards (I was sent seven boxes, which meant I only had one spare board left), and I screwed them into the screws. You can install them on top of your baseboard, but I decided they looked better without my baseboard, so I removed them. There is a small gap between the boards and the floor, but it is barely noticeable. This also means I don’t need to cut boards (except for outlets and light switches).

This is the hard part – cutting the holes. I needed to cut some holes for the outlets, light switch, and my light fixture. If you have a chainsaw, you are already in a much better place than I was. I had a simple hand saw and no workbench, so it was difficult to get straight lines while sawing the pieces. I used my own Milwaukee Fastback The knife cut 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 boards to keep those lines straight. Fortunately, you have to look closely to see how rough my holes are, or at least that’s what I keep telling myself.