It’s not unusual to come across an expanse of plaster wall by an outdoor living area. In the picture below, this patio space is adjacent to the finished basement of this home. The homeowner wants this secondary patio to be as “inviting” as the main patio area, which is off the first floor.
Decorative Options For Plaster Walls
There are a few options for softening and/or disguising plaster walls. You could paint them, although I’d look into that real thoroughly. Painting concrete has to be done right or problems can result. Also, once it’s painted, it’s painted!… Not a treatment easily reversed.
There are decorative finishes such as those from companies like Sto that can be applied over the concrete. There are thin-stone veneers and artificial veneers that also can be applied to the concrete wall without the need for a special footing or support.
Decorative lattice is another option. If you intend to see some or all of the lattice then you need to be attentive to details such as trimmed and finished edges. On this particular project our intention was to ultimately cover the entire wall with English ivy. What we needed was a support system to train the new ivy plants onto. The carpenter nailed wood furring strips to the concrete and then attached PVC lattice to the strips. We used 3 English ivy plants that came in 7 gal. containers. Their runners were already 6′ long and enabled us to cover quite a bit of the area. In a year or two I suspect the wall and PVC lattice will completely be covered.
Maybe you’ve had luck with another solution. If so, please leave a comment.