First of all, Happy Birthday, ‘Mom’ Royuk! You’re the filling to our birthday Oreo. 🙂
Well, today was a day of acoustic testing. Lloyd – bless his heart – spent all day at the center with my putting that beautiful brain to good use. We did some sound checks with the panels up and with the panels down. They make a difference in intelligibility. (Woo! Correct spelling on the first try!) More panels would be better, but you go with what you can.
Then we worked on trying various ways of covering/coloring them. FabricMate sells an amazing system for covering them with fabric, but it is very pricey and just can’t happen now. We bought some cheap sheets at Wal*Mart and several bottles of fabric dye made specifically for polyester, which is what these are made of. (I have been doing a lot of experimenting on my own with the samples they sent me last spring.) The sheets are ok, but not great (a little too short), but I really like how spraying the dye turned out. They have a cool mottled effect that doesn’t show as well in the photos.
Spraying dye:
Cutting sheet seams:
The two brown panels are propped up. (They will not live like this forever.) I’ll ask the staff what they think. Lloyd thinks we should also ask parents what they think about our various set-ups, and only charge $5 per opinion.
Here’s a ‘before’ of the above-cabinets area. This isn’t my classroom – it belongs to a teacher who has her act together much more than I do.
Here’s the ‘after’ with two panels up. It reads more brown in real life. I just need three more panels up there to fill in the space.
Thank you, Lloyd, for your help! 🙂
Brad says
I had to read intelligibility three times before I understood what word it was. I’ve heard that word before, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen it in print.
Kristi says
How do you keep all those good ideas in your head? They must want to ooze out at every opportunity. I need to come stay with you and borrow ALL of your awesome solutions to everyday problems. Seriously.
Kristi says
Oh, and happy birthday to Mrs. Royuk!
Mom says
Ok, you have confused me. Do the panels go on the walls or ceiling and will the dark ones make the rooms darker. Happy Birthday to the Oreos. Each one is special.
Lauren says
They will go on the walls. Ideally, we will decide what the best method is for covering them and each room will have some sort of cohesive look. Personally, I like how the dyed panels turned out, but I wish they were a little more ‘tan’. The plain white is too stark, and covering them with fabric is the priciest method.
Lloyd and I were just over there again and forgot to take a photo of our final experimental layout. Another day. 🙂