The walls in your home add up to a lot of visible surfaces. How they're arranged and ultimately finished will contribute significantly to the overall look and feel of your home.

For walls you're faced with choices driven both by structure and fashion. Do you want the warmth of wood? The versatility of paint? The charm of plaster? Walls are easy to refinish--just make sure they go up where you want them!

Wall Materials

Wall material choices are pretty basic. Drywall is the most common wall material, and plaster - once a standard - now represents luxury. Careful craftsmanship and planning are needed to ensure that walls are put up properly.

Drywall

For decades, 1/2-in. thick gypsum-core drywall has been the standard interior wall finish in US homes. And rightly so. Often called "wallboard" or by the brand name, "Sheetrock," it's an inexpensive, fireproof material that's quick to install and easy to repair. It can be primed and painted, and wallpaper can be hung on it as well.

Drywall should form a draft-tight and fireproof barrier for each room. Gaps around windows, exterior doors and electrical outlets should always be sealed before the trim goes on. When you're working with drywall, screws, not nails, are the fastener of choice. Some nails inevitably pop out, causing the drywall to bulge as the wood framing expands and contracts over seasons. Avoid contractors who still insist on nailing drywall.

If you've got old plaster walls, you can put drywall on top to hide a host of sins. Be careful not to smother the existing trim profile. Either stick with 1/4-in. thick panels or have all the trim removed, then refit over the new wall surface.

An extra layer of drywall or installation of 5/8-in. thick drywall can help dampen sound between rooms. If you go with the double-layer method, the second layer should always be glued to the first to minimize screws which transmit noise.

Finishing Drywall

After the drywall is hung, the joints between sheets must be taped and filled and all the fasteners smoothed over to create a uniform wall. This process, usually called either "taping" or "mudding," is often done by a separate crew. You will be asked to choose the wall texture - either smooth or textured. Smooth finish costs a bit more than most textured finishes because it requires more coats of joint compound and much more sanding. For kitchens and baths, we think this is the only way to go. Textured finishes are applied after the panels are taped and filled. Textures homogeneously cover every imperfection and yield a warmer look. Ask to see a sample before you agree to a texture. Whether your contractor calls it knockdown, orange peel or skip-trowel, the results vary, depending who does the work.

If you're operating on a low budget, expect to get ½-in. thick board and simple details, installed without dust control. In a moderately priced project, you'll get ½-in. thick board, fussier details, and moderate dust control. With a bigger budget you'll be able to afford 5/8-in thick board with difficult installation parameters, and dust will be fully contained.

Plaster

Until drywall took over, plaster covered most interior walls. This lime-based cement and sand mixture was troweled over wooden strips (called lath) nailed over the framing. Today, plaster is a luxury wall finish, thinly troweled over a drywall backing. Good plasterers can produce a wide range of textures, from the slick and uniform to the rough and earthy. They can also apply non-fading, mineral-based pigments in the top coat as they work to create the timeless look of old masonry.

With a low-range budget, anticipate a textured 1/8 in.-thick skim coat over drywall. Mid-range spenders can get smooth skim coat over drywall with bullnose corners. At the high end you'll get pigmented, two- coat plaster featuring arches, niches and trimless windows and doors.