Need advice — Full‑wall felt acoustic panels vs. Munsell N5/N7 paint vs. hybrid

[Daniel OFlaherty]

Hey everyone,

I’m in the middle of designing a hybrid colour‑grading workspace and I’m trying to make a final decision on wall treatment. I’d really appreciate input from anyone who has balanced colour‑critical neutrality with acoustic control.

I’m currently choosing between three approaches:

1. Covering the walls entirely with felt acoustic panels – (melange grey or dark grey — full‑wall coverage using 120 × 240 cm, 1.2 cm thick panels)
2. Painting the room in a neutral Munsell value – (either N5 or N7)
3. A hybrid approach – (paint the grading‑critical walls and use felt only where acoustics benefit most — guidance on ideal placement would be appreciated)

The felt panels are appealing because they would handle early reflections and reduce echo while also acting as the wall finish. My concern is whether the felt texture and the slight tonal variation in the melange surface could compromise visual neutrality — especially since the walls are extremely close to my monitors and sit directly in my peripheral vision.

What I’m attaching for reference

To make this easier to evaluate, I’ve included several images:

• Side‑by‑side comparisons of the felt samples (melange grey, dark grey, etc.) next to an X‑Rite ColorChecker grey patch so you can see how neutral they actually are under controlled lighting. Also reference link to Merange Grey & Dark Grey both colours and texture found here: https://mute.ae/collections/wall/products/plain-panel-1?variant=50204103475360)
• Photos of the room with dimensions so you can understand the scale and wall geometry.
• A floor plan with the sit / stand desk (1x L shape on left of north wall fro colour grading / editing & 1x standard on right of north wall for my partner), monitors, cabinets, and client TV rendered in to show exactly where everything will be placed and which walls are grading‑critical.

These visuals should help clarify how close the monitors are to the walls, how much surface area the felt would cover, and how the cabinetry and client display interact with the wall treatment.

Questions I’m hoping to answer

• Are melange grey or dark grey (or others shown) felt panels neutral enough for a grading environment, or does the texture/mottling risk influencing colour perception?
• If texture is a problem, is it safer to stick with paint (N5 or N7)?
• For a hybrid approach, which walls should be painted and which should receive felt? My partner is on video calls sometimes so that why I thought of doing the monitor facing wall also).
• If I go with paint, would a combination like N5 on the north wall (the grading‑critical wall) and N7 on the surrounding walls make sense, or should everything be a single value?

Room layout & context

• The desk sits in the north–west corner of the room.
• Desk depth is 70 cm, and it’s pushed directly against the wall — so both monitors sit very close to the wall surface.
• The grading monitor will sit in the corner between the north and west walls.
• The ultrawide monitor will sit directly against the north wall.
• I’ll have cabinets mounted above the desk on the north wall, so whatever finish I choose needs to integrate visually with cabinetry.
• On the west wall, above the desk, I’ll have a client‑facing TV on a pull‑out arm so clients can adjust their viewing angle. I will have a store away couch for them to sit agains the south wall.
• On the south wall behind me, I’m planning vertical wooden slats with felt acoustic backing for rear‑wall absorption/diffusion.
• The room is a jack of all trades; a colour gadding edit space for me and an office area form my partner, whilst also being a guest room with a makeshift bed if guests come to town)

I know it’s a lot of information to take in but would really appreciate any help you can give me on this so I can start getting it all sorted. Thanks so much.

 

[Tony Sal]

Daniel,

I had good success using the DIY gray paint formula which was originally posted on the FSI website but is not longer available (see attached pdf for the formula). I painted the wall in front of monitors, to the left and behind the grading console, the roof I left white. I recommend not mounting cabinets above the desk as that space should be used for mounting a client monitor with a small seating area for the client against the south wall. I prefer to have the wall behind the monitors empty as that allows an unobstructed line of sight.

I would add curtains to the East wall sliding door and not use that entrance instead making the door on the south wall the primary entrance if possible.

Based on past experience building hybrid designs I discovered often a compromise has to be made to allow it to be multipurpose but at the expense of one of more of the intended useage. I suggest determining the principal 75-80% usage for the room and tailor for that purpose instead of trying to make the room a "jack of all trades".

 

[Daniel OFlaherty]

Thank you Tony. I guess I should mention but the east wall with the sliding door actually has a blind out of sight which electrically comes down and is a grey colour. As for the client monitor I would have preferred your suggestion but I do need to also have storage options in the room, and my partner will also use the desk beside mine for her work. So that is why I decide to place it on the west wall above with an arm for the client to view. The only alternative to this would be I put the cabinets onto west wall and put the monitor on the north wall, but then these cabinets would be very in your face when entering the door, and as its a shared space / very occasional guest room I worry that will not go down do well aha. Do you think its not worth putting any felt acoustics in there then?

 

[Tony Sal]

The acoustic panels I have used in suites are the dark gray foam material which are used in sound recording studios. I dislike the color of of the acoustic panel as shown in the link you sent as it will stand out against the darker gray walls. For editing purposes will the editor be doing a sound mix also. If so then the additional cost of the acoustic panels may be worthwhile.

How often to you expect to have a client attended session? Do you have a plan for a remote streaming service?

My computer rack is housed in a second room which is the machine room due to the noise of the raid which drove me crazy when I had it in the same room as the console. Where will you house the computer, raid and additional accessories?

 

[Jamie LeJeune]

Just my two cents on paint here.

I've used both the Behr paint formula and GTI N5 over the years as I've moved to new spaces and it is visibly clear why FSI pulled the Behr formula off their site. The GTI is much more expensive, so my approach evolved to only use the GTI where it matters. For the majority of the walls the difference has no impact, but for just the grading monitor surround, I think it's been worth paying for a single pint of the GTI N5 to cover it.

 

[Rajneesh Kassin]

My computer rack is housed in a second room which is the machine room due to the noise of the raid which drove me crazy when I had it in the same room as the console. Where will you house the computer, raid and additional accessories?

The RAID used to drive me crazy as well, but once we switched to an SSD RAID, the noise went down by a factor of 10. I'm fine with the minor fan noise in the box now. On days when I have to do a spinning drive backup, I'm often surprised by how noisy it is.