Decorator Design Style

Problem
I have a seventies style house that has a great layout but a terribly ugly timber panelled wall in my loungeroom. This wall is the main wall as you enter and the first thing that people see. It has been badly damaged over the years and has a large stain to one side. What can I do to fix this as removing it will affect the ceiling and the floor.

Solutions
A few suggestions that may help, each option should be assessed to compliment the style of your home now or to the look you want to achieve in your renovation. Often giving a difficult area a special treatment of texture or colour will create a fantastic visual impact and be a really powerful design statement in the room.

Colour it
First suggestion would be to paint the wall, this is probably the simplest and the cheapest and I would strongly advise using a contrast colour paint companies such as Porters Paints, Murobond and Resene have amazing colours and special finishes. Depending on the length of the wall you may wish to use a slightly metallic finish with textured brush strokes. This can be either very soft or subtle if you choose a colour like warm champagne or dramatic should you go with a darker bronze or aubergine colour.

Cover it
This is really great as you can create amazing results. A really great look can be achieved by fixing sheets over the existing panelled area.

You may use sheets of gyprock and place them directly over the existing wall. You may need to address the floor at the skirting area, removing the existing skirting and refixing it once you have placed the sheeting on. Remember to also check the cornice at the ceiling level, the sheets will need to be what’s called “Stop, Set and Sanded”  This is not a difficult job but if your considering doing it yourself you can always get some advice from somewhere like Bunnings Hardware store. They also run training workshops for different home reno jobs.

Light it
Once you have selected the finish for your wall you should also consider using lighting to create special effects. This can be achieved by placing downlights at different spacing’s to create light and dark effects against your new feature wall or to direct spotlights or halogens  to a wonderful artwork or wall sculpture that you may wish to hang.

Make it Unique
Whilst plain gyprock is a simple solution why not stretch the imagination a little further to something like applying perforated sheets in front of the existing wall. These sheets can be laser cut and laser cut in many different mediums. Mdf sheets, steel!! Core 10 is a beautiful product and you can use the rusted steel product for a unique effect. With the sheets you can have the laser cut any design you choose, say a wonderful Moroccan or Moorish or Retro design. You could even allow a cavity behind and light it from behind. Imagine the effect that would be created at night as the patterns were omitted from behind.