Beautiful sound-absorbing EchoPanels are made from recycled plastic bottles

Taming your room’s acoustics doesn’t have to mean compromising on style. These beautiful sound-absorbing Kirei EchoPanel tiles we spotted at Greenbuild 2015 let you have it all—from stylish designs to eco-friendly living.

Made from recycled PET plastic bottles, environmentally friendly dyes, and zero added adhesive, these 100% recyclable, sound-absorbing panels can be customized to create almost any shape, color, or pattern your heart desires.

Hard surfaces and high ceilings are major contributing factors to noisy, echoing spaces. Inhabitat met Kirei founder John Stein at his Greenbuild booth where he explained that designers should ideally create spaces that cater to good acoustics, just like they would for natural light. “People who are doing open lofts often don’t realize it’s going to be an echo-y space,” Stein said. “If you think about acoustic solutions early on, it’ll be a lot cheaper.”

Luckily, however, it’s usually never too late to fix poor acoustics. Where most acoustic solutions are boring, Kirei EchoPanels offers a chic alternative. The versatile sound-absorbing panels and tiles are made from 100% PET, with up to 60% recycled content, and come in three easy-to-install types: the clip-on DuneWave Tile; the long and rectangular EchoPanel strips; and the peel-and-stick Geometry Tiles. All of the options are available in a variety of colors but can also be easily customized, cut to size, and printed with custom prints or colors. The low-VOC decorative surfaces have a felt-like face finish and can be recycled through the normal waste stream. Certified by Green Tag, the acoustic panels and tiles contain zero added urea formaldehyde.

Since the EchoPanels are so lightweight, users can simply stick or clip the panels onto the walls and modify the sizes as needed with a utility knife. Kirei has also explored other creative ways to use the acoustic panels, from desk partitions to sculptural ceiling blades. Kirei also displayed furnishing options that demonstrate the sturdiness and versatility of EchoPanels at Greenbuild: a stool by designer Toby Nolan and two chairs by Surya Graf.