this post was submitted on 15 Dec 2025
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When we bought this lovely mid-century modern house a few years ago, my only real complaint was "I hate that fucking wall!"

Short term solution was to bury it behind bookshelves, but it's still there... LURKING. It irks me just knowing it's still there, that half-assed wainscoting made of plywood strips and blue paint.

At a minimum, my plan is to pull the plywood off and re-paint before putting the bookracks back, but there has to be something nicer.

Maybe something like this above the bookracks where the wall is exposed? I dunno. I'm open to ideas.

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[–] melsaskca@lemmy.ca 14 points 1 week ago

If money is an issue you can just try to convince yourself that it looks good.

[–] SupraMario@lemmy.world 10 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I'm betting that behind it is drywall. It looks like someone just wanted an accent wall for I'm guessing furniture(chairs) to not bang against a softer material like drywall. I'd check behind it first, you might get a nice surprise.

[–] jordanlund@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

What they did was staple a horizontal slat, then some extra vertical slats, and painted the bottom half of the wall blue.

It's all plaster except for the crappy wood slats they stapled on. LOL.

I found some old photos from before they did this, it was a perfectly fine wall. Maybe a little plain, but fine!

[–] SupraMario@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Just remove them and give it a coat of paint then. Or are you wanting to change it to something else thats not plaster?

[–] jordanlund@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

That's the minimalist basic plan, yeah. Hoping to do something complimentary above the bookshelves though.

[–] Today@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago
[–] IWW4@lemmy.zip 8 points 1 week ago

The ceiling is too low for ay sort of accent wall. Your plan of just removing it and restoring/replace it with drywall is the way too go.

[–] abbadon420@sh.itjust.works 7 points 1 week ago (1 children)

How about plain old plaster? Strio whatever this is, finish it with plaster and a paintjob and you're done. Easy peasy (actually a fair bit of work,but renovating a wall is a fair bit of work)

[–] jordanlund@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Not a bad idea, a bit beyond me doing it, but that's what contractors are for! 😉

[–] SippyCup@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 week ago

Nah mate, that's something you can do.

Pull the slats and the ugly ass accent strip off and you'll almost certainly find plan ole drywall or plaster. Get a little fix tube, it will even have a little scraper attached to the bottom as part of the tube, and just spend an hour squirting plaster in to the holes and scrape it smooth. Grab a sanding block, and sand it down once it's dry. Prime, paint, forget about it.

Even if it's a nasty gouge you can still manage the plaster yourself. It might just take a tub and a wide plaster knife but it's certainly not hard.

[–] ChonkyOwlbear@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago

I've seen enough HGTV to know the answer is always shiplap.

[–] thisbenzingring@lemmy.today 3 points 1 week ago

I had a wall like this in the basement of my old house, behind it was cement and the 2x4s and drywall didnt start till above it. I started to take it down and realized it was better then the cement and put it back up and painted it. Sometimes one ugly is better then another.

[–] DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

I mean like my (well not technically my house, it's my parent's) house has like cracks in the walls and in the ceilings. Like sometimes water from the bathrub area starts leaking...

Like... average Philly house

It's been like this since like I was still in middleschool/highschool many years ago.

Never really got fixed.

Also, heater is semi-broken, since like 2016/2017 I think. Randomly stops working and my dad has to use some weird temporry fix and it would last a maybe a fee days to weeks, and like next winter its the same shit.

Also, the refrigerator/freezer sometimes has like the top freezer part the it would get above 0°C and icecream would melt. Ruined a lot of icecream lol.

I feel like your standards are too high... just live with it. Like my current shitty house is not even the worst house I've lived in, I've lived in much worse in my home country.

[–] jordanlund@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Oh yeah, FUNCTIONALLY, the house is fine.*

*"fine" defined as "built in 1951 so there is not a single ground wire in the entire house so we have 4 GFI outlets for the important stuff." 😉

[–] GreenKnight23@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago

get yourself some cheap appliques or onlays, paint them and install them.