hey y’all,

i decided to take on a little project the other day—adding sconces above my bedroom bedside tables and those acoustic wooden slat panels onto the wall behind the bed. i purchased enough panels to essentially create a faux headboard (~43” from the floor including baseboard trim) since my bed frame does not have one. the plan was to lay these panels horizontally as i thought it would be more aesthetically pleasing to follow the longer of the dimensions.

i removed the baseboard trim in order to open up a hole in the wall and route the electrical properly and then added the switch and light boxes; so far so good! i turn on the laser level to line up the two gang box on the other side and mark the bottom line. i decided to check the distance from the floor on both sides, and that’s when i noticed there was a difference: the left box sits 29” while the right side would sit 28”, and that’s when i realized that the floor is uneven. essentially, the floor slopes upward to the right side towards the window seen in the picture.

the baseboard trim was not cut in any way to be level. it simply rests on the floor and follows the slope. this means that if i rested the acoustic panels onto the trim, they too would follow the slope. while i don’t think an inch would be a noticeable difference, it could become obvious if i mounted the switch and light boxes at level heights. here are my thoughts so far on how to approach this problem:

1. easiest option: install the panels at the same slope as the floors and align the boxes on the right side an inch higher so that they optically align and hope it’s not noticeable.

2. apply everything level and have an extra wooden slat on the left side that tapers out at it heads to the right (awkward??)

3. install the slats vertically instead. this solves the issue but also means making a lot more cuts, and truthfully i’m not terribly keen on how this would look visually.

4. reinstall the trim at a leveled height, meaning it would have a 1” gap between it and the floor on the left side, and now i would have to remove the trim along the perpendicular wall and solve that problem too.

i guess i’m just curious to get y’all’s thoughts on how you’d approach this problem? is there a solution here that i’m missing? feel free to ask questions if something isn’t terribly obvious. thanks!!!


Acoustic panel installation on uneven floors