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The Many Uses of Slatwall

by Mike-N-Tosh™

Slatwall is one of the most popular materials used in the retail industry due to it's versatility, durability, wide variety of colors and finishes as well as the plethora of hardware and accessories widely available.

The most common use of slatwall is to display merchandise on a wall. The most obvious reason for this is that it allows great versatility to display just about any type of product. With the huge array of hardware and accessories available, a great deal of merchandise can be displayed and accessible to the customers.

The less obvious use of slatwall installed on a wall is the display of products out of the reach of customers on the sales floor. Using wall space above the reach of your customers, still allows your merchandise to be visible not only to customers in your store, but also to potential customers that are passing by, whether your store is in a mall, or in it's own building.

As slatwall is generally a 4 by 8 foot wood panel, just like plywood, it is used to also make displays and fixtures. Unlike standard display shelving which generally only has a few adjustable height shelves for one purpose, slatwall displays and fixtures come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes. When coupled with the available hardware and accessories, this makes it a much more versatile fixture which can, of course, include shelves as well.

These slatwall fixtures can come with castors built in, making them easy to move wherever you like. They can also allow merchandise display on all sides as well. Some of these slatwall products are made to be modular, free standing fixtures that can be re-configured depending on your needs.

Although slatwall was originally made for the retail industry, as with most things today, it has found it's way into other areas now available to consumers and other industries as well. Although the bulk of slatwall is made from MDF (medium density fiberboard), it is now made from several different products allowing slatwall to be used in many different ways. Slatwall is now made from steel, aluminum and even PVC (polyvinyl chloride).

Several industries are taking advantage of the stronger metal slatwall for readily accessible storage. For instance, a factory may use it along with plastic or metal accessory bins to store nuts, bolts and other small bulk items. The same with vehicle service stations and auto parts stores for use in the back away from customers.

PVC slatwall is now being sold to consumers as storage solutions in areas that may have moisture, such as a garage, a basement and outside storage sheds. This use has also created a large variety of new specialty hardware and accessories for slatwall such as bicycle hangers, moveable cabinets, electrical cord hangers, sports stations, garden hose containers and tool holders.

New technology has been used to allow different types of finishes to be applied to the product as well giving it even more versatility in it's uses. This has opened up the use of slatwall in homes and offices as wall coverings.

A great example of this is Textured slatwall. Allowing slatwall to be used in almost any home design and decor. This gives the home owner a beautiful living space with the versatility of all of the slatwall accessories and hardware available in the home.

So as you can see, slatwall has become a very versatile product with many, many uses. I have only covered some of them in here, but with a little imagination, you could come up with even more uses.