The walls in our homes are like the guardians of our privacy. Plaster, wood, and insulation serve as the layer between our housemates, neighbors, and deepest secrets.
That’s why, if your house has thin walls, it can be a necessity to work and make your space soundproof. But how does that black foamy stuff we see in all the music studios work?
Is there a way around buying it and how to reduce noise between rooms?
Learn all the information you need to know about soundproofing your room below.
Soundproofing Products I recommend
We’ll get into whether or not acoustic panels are a good idea later on. If you’re looking for the best soundproofing panels on the market, you can look at our recommendations below.
- Sonic Acoustics/Fstop Labs Acoustic Foam Panels: These are the classic foam panels your childhood friend who became a music producer would love. Arranging them on just a few key spots of your wall will already make your room a lot more silent.
- Holikme Twin Door Draft Stopper: This under-the-door soundproofing is easy to adjust and fits more doors at 34” long. Not only will it keep the sound inside, but it can also prevent a chilly wind from passing into the room.
- Dekiru High-Density Sound Panels: These panels come in seven different color options so that you can get creative with the design. They’re made of 100% polyester fiber, much denser than your classic foam, and flame retardant.
- Sonic Acoustics Hexagon Acoustic Absorption Panel: These hexagon panels are fantastic for use in specific sound points throughout the room. You can put them together like a puzzle or spread them throughout the walls evenly.
Reducing Noise Between Rooms with Everyday Items
Everyone likes silence, but not everyone has the budget for it. If you have just a few of these regular items around your house, you can make your room quieter for free!
Step One: Rearrange Your Furniture
Again, the idea here is to take up as much space on the wall as possible. Your Furniture is often the densest object you’ll have in a room, and aligning it against the wall will keep those empty spaces filled up.
If you have an oversized couch just a few inches from the wall, push it up against it. The same can be said for your TV stand, a dresser, a wardrobe, etc.
Books are very good at absorbing sounds, if you have bookshelves, consider placing them on the wall between the two rooms.
Step Two: Seal the Doors and Windows
The automatic seals we mentioned above are probably the best solution here. You can find products that will keep those tiny gaps that air passes through wholly sealed. This sealing is pivotal because doors and windows are where most sound escapes.
If you don’t want to make a significant investment into sealing these passageways, there are a few more affordable options as well. For doors, you can buy a cheap draft-blocker like the one we recommended above or just stuff a thick towel under it. This product won’t seal the door on all four sides but will keep you a little more isolated.
For windows, we recommend investing in a thick set of drapes. They’re not only useful for blocking out light. Similar to the carpet, they will help block some sound as well.
Step Four: Add as Many Dense Objects to the Space as Possible
There are many decorative and functional items you can add to a space that will also absorb sound. One of the best ways to make your couch more soundproof is to put as many decorative pillows on it as possible — the thicker and bigger the pillow, the better.
Plants are also fantastic at blocking sound. The soil in their pots is dense and makes it hard for soundwaves to travel. Plus, they look beautiful. Putting some big decorative plants like a Ficus in the corners of the room will help reduce noise.
Step Four: Add Layers to Your Surfaces
As we mentioned above, to properly prevent sound from escaping, you need thick materials. Since the average person isn’t going to pour concrete onto the floor of their flat, a big old rug will suffice. The fibers in old carpets and rugs are extra thick and will suck up some of those soundwaves.
For the walls, you can consider buying a tapestry.
The beautiful and decorative designs will make your room look like a tea house and make it just a bit quieter. Most tapestries are thin. If you want to be even more effective, you can try a duvet or heavy blanket. Putting a tapestry on top of it will make it friendly and colorful.
If you have any bare wood in the room, it’s also a good idea to develop some kind of padding. For example, if you have a wooden chair, you can put a pillow or a pad to make it vibrate less and absorb more sound.
Step Five: Create Counter-Noise
In the end, if you still hear noise through the walls, or your neighbors hear you, then the best thing you can do is drown it out. Play some low-level music while you’re reading or doing work to distract you from the annoying sounds drifting into the room.
You can also try a white noise machine or an application with ambiance sounds (like whale calls or rainstorms). The human ear can only focus on so many things at once. If you give it some other stimulus, you’ll forget about your arguing neighbors in no time.
What about placing soundproofing panels between the two rooms?
Sound travels in waves. Those waves can move through solid surfaces like plaster and regular insulation quickly. Lighter materials (like foam, polyester, or wood) have many different fibers inside that vibrate at a high frequency. When the sound wave passes through them, it gets trapped inside and can’t bounce around the room.
There is no particular point on the wall where you can put a foam panel to make it more effective. Instead, people usually just gather them in spaces where they feel they will block the most sound. Covering an entire wall or room is also very common and leads to the best results.
However, foam panels, and most other panels on the market, don’t stop sound from passing through. Instead, they reduce reverberation time.
If you’re not a sound engineer, you’ve probably never heard of reverb. Reverb is like an echo. When sound waves are emitted, they bounce around a room for a while before they disappear.
With acoustic panels on the wall, you can catch the sound and prevent it from bouncing around the same room. This is why you often see these foam panels in music studios and theatres. They are used to reduce the echo so that the music is clearer when recorded or performed.
Acoustic panels are great for a home theatre or space where you want to listen to music more clearly. If your goal is to keep sound inside the room, the experts say these panels aren’t advantageous.
Wrap – Up
Today we learned many things about soundproofing a room. We learned that acoustic panels are not the most successful method for absorbing sound. Also, eliminating sound from a room is more complicated than most people think and involves meticulous construction.
Finally, a list of ways to make your rooms more silent with everyday objects should come in handy for people trying to soundproof between rooms on a budget.
We hope this article was helpful for you and your troubles with noise. Whether you’re trying to sleep or focus, unwanted sounds are one of the most annoying distractions. As human beings, we all deserve our space and our silence.
If you found this information useful or want to know more, post a comment below, and I will respond right away! Enjoy the peace and quiet.
Hi there, I’m going to sleep train my son and live in a condo complex. Any tips on reducing the sound of his crying to the neighbors? I bought some foam to put on a wall and ceiling. Also get the sound blocking curtains? Any other tips?