You may have heard a unique ringing sound called flutter echo if you’ve ever been in a big public place or an open loft with bare walls and hard floors. This happens when sound waves bounce back and forth between the floor, walls, and roof, making it hard to talk.
Yes, your loft apartment might not be as big as an airport, train stop, or library, but let’s face it: there’s probably a lot of other noise around you. That’s why you might be interested in how to make a room less echoy.
Sound waves can bounce back and forth between two walls that are opposite each other, creating a fuzzy, out-of-focus, and delayed sound inside. Long rooms and ceilings that are high can make these clear echoes even stronger, which can make it hard to talk or watch TV or music at home.
But if you think about it and use these tips carefully, you can stop annoying sounds and make the room quieter without the echoes. Here are some ways that different fabrics and other things can help make a room less echo-y.
How to Reduce Echo in a Room: 8 Effective Solutions
1. Soundproof Your Ceiling
If you live in an apartment with noisy neighbors above you, silencing your ceiling can block out the sounds of heavy footsteps, TVs that are too loud, and furniture being moved. Whether you do it yourself or hire someone to do it, you need to know the basics of building before you start this job.
Figure out what kind of ceiling you have (usually drop or normal drywall), how you want to lower the noise (absorption, dampening, decoupling, or mass), and how much money you have to spend. Putting up one or two more layers of drywall could help you rest and sleep better.
2. Install Foam Mats
If you want to cut down on noise in a room, foam squares are another thing you can try. To make a foam mat for the floor, just put them together like a puzzle. You can get rid of even more sound by putting an area rug over the foam.
3. Hang Tapestries on Parallel Walls
A big picture on canvas or a piece of fabric will help block out some of the sound to stop echo. If you put things with soft surfaces on parallel surfaces, they will make it harder for sound to bounce back and forth between walls.
One more thing to think about before you buy wall art: heavy oil paint can dry to look like a hard surface and cause reflection and diffusion. So it’s best if the sides of your wall art are soft.
4. “Carpet” Your Walls
It’s not necessary to cover your walls with carpet like it’s the 1970s, but you could put a colored area rug or a heavy blanket on them to block out noise. Rugs and blankets are often thicker than tapestries and woven wall hangings, so you might get even more bang for your buck with one of these similar home art items.
5. Use a Tall Bookcase and Add Objects to the Room
By making sound waves bend around, a big bookcase with objects of different sizes can soften and stop echoes. This is done by spreading sound around the room. Putting books on a shelf at different depths also makes this effect stronger, which stops the flutter of echoes.
6. Add Area Rugs to Bare Floors
You can also use concrete, tile, or wooden floors as reflective surfaces. It’s nice to have an area rug because it adds warmth and style, and the softer surface helps cut down on noise in places with high ceilings.
Get as many floor rugs as you can for your home. Rugs will separate your rooms, make them more comfortable to walk on, and help block out noise. There’s a reason why landlords often ask renters to cover most of their floors with carpeting.
7. Bring in Acoustic Panels to Enhance Sound Absorption.
Acoustic foam walls that have been used for a long time can stop sound from reflecting back and forth. I found a business that lets customers choose art to put on acoustical walls that look plain and boring by default.
You can cut and install foam sheets to put in the back of canvas-mounted art as a do-it-yourself project. You may already have some soft foam sheets lying around from when you shipped something.
8. Work Window Coverings to Their Full Potential
The better your window covers are at blocking out noise, the heavier and wider they are. This is especially true if you have big windows. Instead of sheers, which are light and airy, think about velvets and strong canvas cottons for drapery.
Putting up curtains can really help if all you have are blinds or shades. If you only have curtains, you should think about putting them with bamboo or fabric-woven shades instead of metal or plastic blinds because they soak up more light.
You can also put two sets of curtains together, like in the room above. You can also hang curtain panels on a wall or a big opening that goes to a room next door. It’s better to have more soft cloth to block out noise.
Any room can feel sterile, cold, and uninviting with a flutter of echoes. By making smart acoustic choices like the ones above, you can make it easier to understand movie dialogue, make music from your stereo clearer, and most importantly, keep talks comfortable and easy.
Layer Decor on Floors and Walls
Layering is important in interior design for more than just making a room look balanced and well-thought-out, says Keira Schultz, owner of KS Designs and an interior designer. It also helps to cut down on noise and makes a room feel more lived in, she says.
She says that you should try putting rugs on top of each other on the floor or hanging them as patterns on the walls. Using art that isn’t protected by glass, like paper, can also be helpful.