Hidden Acoustic Panels: Do Panels Under Tables Work?

Hidden Acoustic Panels: Do They Work?

Exposed ductwork, brick, concrete floors and big windows look great in a restaurant or office, and they are exactly why the room is loud. Every hard surface throws sound back, so conversations stack on top of each other until everyone is shouting. The fix is sound absorbing panels, and the first question most owners ask is whether they can hide them.

You can, with a trade-off. A panel absorbs the sound that reaches its face. Hide it somewhere sound reaches easily and it keeps most of its effect. Hide it somewhere sheltered, like under a table, and it does less of the job. This guide covers how much less, how to mount under-table panels if you go that way, and the hidden options that give up almost nothing.

Quick answer Acoustic panels under tables work partly. They still absorb sound, but the tabletop blocks the direct path from people’s voices, so each panel does noticeably less than the same panel on a wall or ceiling. Use them as a supplement. For panels that are nearly invisible and still fully effective, color-match sound absorbing wall panels to the wall or ceiling clouds to the ceiling.

Do Acoustic Panels Under Tables Work?

Under table sound absorption works on the same principle as any panel: sound that strikes the fiberglass is turned into a tiny amount of heat instead of bouncing back into the room. The question is how much sound strikes it.

In a loud, hard room most of the noise is reflected sound, not direct sound, and reflected sound reaches almost everywhere, including the space under a table. That is why under-table panels do something. But three things work against them:

• The tabletop shades the panel from the voices and clatter right above it, which is the loudest sound at that table.
• The space below is crowded. Legs, chairs, pedestal bases and bags block part of the panel’s face.
• The panels are small. A 2′ × 2′ panel fits under a typical two-top, which is 4 sq ft of absorption. One 4′ × 6′ panel on a wall is 24.

Under-table panels do have one real advantage: they sit between the hard floor and the hard underside of the table, where chair scrapes and dropped cutlery bounce back and forth. And no one ever sees them. Just plan them as the extra, not the main treatment.

How Much Under-Table Absorption Adds Up To

A common starting point for a loud dining room or open office is sound absorbing panel area equal to about 15–25% of the floor area, more for rooms with high, hard ceilings. Here is how a 2,000 sq ft dining room with 40 tables works out.

Approach	Panel area	How well it works
Target for the room (about 20% of floor)	About 400 sq ft	Where conversation gets comfortable
A 2′ × 2′ panel under every table	160 sq ft	Shaded, so it performs like a good deal less than 160
2′ × 4′ panels under every table	320 sq ft	Still shaded; tables need a 30″ × 48″ top or bigger
Ceiling clouds or baffles	Whatever the room needs	Full effect, over the tables where the noise is
Mix: clouds or wall panels, plus under-table panels	Ceiling or walls first, tables to top up	The usual answer when owners want the least visible panels

Even a panel under every table usually leaves a busy room short. That is why the ceiling does most of the work in almost every restaurant we see.

How to Mount Acoustic Panels Under Tables

1. Measure the underside, not the top. Subtract the apron and the base or legs. Leave at least 2″ clear of the edge so knees don’t hit the panel. Our sound absorbing wall panels come in 2′ × 2′ ($109) and 2′ × 4′ ($159), both 2″ thick.
2. Use the impaling clips supplied with the panels. Screw them to the underside of the tabletop with screws short enough not to come through the top, then press the panel onto them. On a thin or veneered top, use a construction adhesive rated for fiberglass panels instead.
3. Pick a dark fabric. Black or charcoal disappears under a table. The fabric is wrapped on every face, so no fiberglass is exposed.
4. Don’t forget booths. The underside of a booth seat and the back of a high booth that faces a wall are good hidden spots, and they are often less shaded than a table.

For placement on walls and ceilings, see how to hang acoustic panels and where to place them.

Hidden Acoustic Panels That Still Work

The best way to hide a panel is to leave it in the open and make it hard to notice. A panel on a wall or ceiling gets the full effect, so you need far fewer of them than under tables.

• Color-match to the wall. Our panels come in 24 fabric colors at the same price, so you can pick the one closest to the paint. A panel the same color as the wall reads as a shadow line, not a product. See the fabric options.
• Color-match ceiling clouds to the ceiling. Acoustic ceiling clouds hang just below the ceiling, and the air gap behind them helps them absorb more. White clouds under a white ceiling, or black under a black deck, are easy to miss.
• Print a picture on them. Art panels use a printed, acoustically transparent fabric, so the panel looks like a canvas print. Our sister company Commercial Acoustics did this at Zasu in New Orleans, printing panels in the exact paint color and fitting them inside the existing trim.
• Fit them between beams or joists. Panels laid on top of exposed beams, or fixed between them, sit in the ceiling’s shadow lines but face straight down into the room.

Concealed Ceiling Acoustic Panels for Restaurants

Restaurants are where hidden treatment comes up most, because the industrial look is the noisy look. The ceiling is the best place to hide restaurant acoustic panels: it is the biggest untreated surface, it sits directly over the tables where the noise starts, and diners look at it least.

• Exposed black deck: black acoustic ceiling baffles hung vertically among the ducts disappear into the dark, and they absorb on both faces.
• Beams or open joists: panels between the beams, color-matched to the deck above, as in the photo at the bottom of this page.
• Flat drywall ceiling: ceiling clouds in the ceiling color, spread over the dining area rather than bunched in one spot.

Spread the treatment out. Panels bunched in one corner leave the rest of the room bouncing. For a related layout, see how a school handles it in cafeteria soundproofing.

Where Hiding Panels Doesn’t Work

• Above a drop ceiling. Panels laid on top of ceiling tiles are sealed off from the room. Sound absorbing tiles go in the grid instead.
• Behind furniture or bookcases. A panel pressed behind a cabinet barely sees any sound.
• Behind curtains or heavy fabric. Thick or lined curtains block much of the sound before it reaches the panel. Only fabric made to be acoustically transparent works as a cover.
• Painted over. Paint seals the fabric, and the panel starts reflecting. Change the fabric color instead; see does soundproof paint work for why paint is no substitute.

Hidden Acoustic Treatment Options Compared

Option	How hidden	How effective	Best for
Panels under tables	Invisible	Partial: shaded by the tabletop	Topping up a room that already has some treatment
Color-matched wall panels	Blends in	Full	Rooms with open wall space
Color-matched ceiling clouds	Easy to miss	Full, plus the air gap helps	Flat ceilings over dining or desks
Baffles in an exposed ceiling	Disappear against a dark deck	Full, both faces absorb	Industrial and open-deck ceilings
Printed art panels	Look like decor	Full	Walls where you’d hang art anyway
Above a drop ceiling or behind furniture	Invisible	Very little	Nothing; skip it

Frequently Asked Questions