HowTo ·

The Perfect Finish: How to Upholster Your AVC Baltic Birch Wall Panels

Hey guys, welcome back to the blog! Today, I’m going to be showing you how to upholster our Baltic Birch Wall Kit panels from AVC with fabric. I’ll demonstrate on a small panel, but these methods apply to all panels we provide.

Step 1: Prep and Landau Foam Application

The first step is identifying the correct side of your panel. At AVC, we always mark the "right" side of the panel with a happy face—make sure this side is facing up to be covered!

📏 Applying Landau Foam

Landau foam acts as an additional measure of insulation and sound dampening.

  1. Lay Out: Lay out your 1/8-inch landau foam, pre-cut to slightly larger than the panel size.

  2. Glue Method: We use the "half method" to ensure perfect placement. Fold back one half of the landau foam.

  3. Adhesive: We use 3M 74 adhesive, which is foam-safe. Apply the glue with about a 50 percent overlap on each pass to the exposed half of the panel. Crucially, ensure the seam (the center line) is well-glued to avoid a void in the middle.

  4. Spray Foam: Apply glue to the corresponding half of the foam. Ensure you have full coverage—every little space needs glue.

  5. Adhere: Carefully roll the foam down onto the panel. Since 74 is a high-strength contact adhesive, you must rub your hand over every part of the panel to ensure a good bond.

  6. Repeat: Expose the other side and repeat the gluing and adhering process. Check for any air bubbles before moving on.

🔪 Trim the Landau

  1. Flip: Flip the panel over so the foam is against the table.

  2. Cut: Use a hobby knife with a retractable blade (we prefer this for control). Cut the foam flush with the edge of the panel.

  3. Tension: If you pull the landau foam away from the cutting line with light tension, you will get a cleaner cut through the adhesive. If the glue catches your blade, simply lift, restart, and cut through the area that stopped you.

Step 2: Applying Fabric

📐 Cutting and Gluing Fabric

  1. Cut Fabric: When cutting your fabric, ensure you leave at least two to three inches of excess material beyond the edge of the panel. This will be wrapped around the back.

  2. Adhesive: We use a high-strength 3M 90 adhesive for the fabric step.

  3. Gluing: Use the same "half method" as the foam. Lay the fabric out and fold it halfway back. Apply the 90 adhesive to the panel and the fabric, maintaining a 50 percent overlap.

    • Pro Tip: You can spray a little beyond the edge of the panel on the fabric side, as this will be wrapped around the back.

  4. Adhere: Carefully smooth out the fabric, making sure to avoid any wrinkles. Rub the entire surface to ensure proper adherence of the contact cement.

  5. Repeat: When gluing the second side, make sure to pull the fabric back beyond the previous glue line on the panel to ensure full coverage.

Step 3: Wrapping and Finishing the Edges

Now that the front is finished, we move to the back.

  1. Trim Excess: Trim the excess fabric, leaving two to three inches to fold back over the edge of the panel. Be sure to save any scraps for future use!

  2. Apply Glue to Wrap: Apply glue to the back edge of the panel, roughly to the point where your fabric will overlap. It’s important to get the glue right into the corner where the fabric meets the panel to ensure full adhesion around the entire edge.

  1. Anchor the Fabric (Stretching):

    • After the glue has cured, start wrapping the fabric. Stretch the fabric firmly before adhering it to the back, similar to stretching a canvas. This ensures nice, clean, tight edges.

    • Stretch, adhere, and work your way toward the corners.

✂️ Corner Method (Outside Corners)

When you approach a corner, you need to manage the excess slack created by the stretch:

  1. Pull and Tuck: Stop stretching a few inches from the corner. Grab the corner, pull the fabric in, and adhere it down.

  2. Shark Fins: You will naturally end up with a small triangular piece of excess fabric (a "shark fin") sticking up. Adhere the base of the triangle to the panel, folding the excess fabric together. We will trim these off later.

  3. Repeat: On the final corner, you will create two shark fins before folding them down.

🔄 Inside Curves

The method for an inside curve is different:

  1. Relief Cuts: Make several relief cuts perpendicular to the curve. This allows the fabric to stretch and hug the curve without bunching.

  2. Adhere Sections: Start on one edge of the curve and pull the fabric all the way back. Then, adhere each of the small sections ("fingers") created by the relief cuts as its own piece to tightly hug the curve.

✂️ Final Trim

  1. Trim Shark Fins: The final step is trimming the excess "shark fins." Use scissors and cut down as close to the back of the panel as possible while pulling tension on the shark fin to pop it off cleanly.

  2. Flatten: Repeat this process for all corners to ensure the fabric lies as flat as possible against the wall.

And with that, your panel is upholstered, ready for a really nice, clean installation! Thanks for reading and we hope this helps you make a fresh interior for your van!

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