I once saw a plywood floor on a kitchen-remodel-on-a-budget TV show. It was given a very slight stain & varnish and looked fabulous. Interesting to see it used as a wall cover -- it looks great here.

Wouldn't it need to be varnished to protect it from insects, limit sawdust an splinters?

I recently finished putting up a plywood paneled wall as a back panel behind my desk which takes up an entire wall. I used a whitewash pickling stain and water based urethane sealer to finish it. It looks pretty good. Good plywood ain't cheap tho'.

Yuck no

This doesn't look good...it looks unfinished.

A whole room would be too much, but one wall in combination with some paint or tile would look very cool.

weird, i was just pondering plywood walls a few minutes ago after spying them here: http://www.remodelista.com/2008/12/30/architect-visit-ps-arkitektur-cabin/ (via http://www.doorsixteen.com/2009/01/05/another-door-sixteen/ )
i bought a house whose basement walls are covered in it (complete with useless plywood built-in benches which i've torn out). the varnished plywood was really dark (from age) and it was depressing going down there; i painted over the walls right quick with a good primer and lots of white paint. i can't imagine ever using the material for walls again. it's an interesting idea but it still looks ever so slightly unfinished to me. i'd like to see redbeard's whitewashed wall...i think it would look nice!

i have a certain fondness for plywood floors though. it's what my family's cottage was laid with (probably back in the 70s)!

I'm with you Lily. I have my doubts, but I think under the right circumstances it could be beautiful.

Honestly, I think the plywood wall in the picture is beautiful. That being said, I do not think the furniture in the room flatters the wall at all.

Perhaps an entire room would be too much. Maybe an accent wall with plywood? Or stained/painted plywood?

Interesting! I like it. It looks like a faux bois wallpaper, but this bois is the real deal.

Wow, that is cool. I think as long as the furnishings are tailored this looks more chic than country. The photo above and the home that thegeneral linked to are two completely different styles (furnishings and the plywood) but I think they both work. I agree, I'd like to see redbeard's!

What about painting the plywood. Just for a single small wall in a no-painting rental?

This was a big thing at a few fashiion boutiques that opened in HK about 2 yrs ago, notably Chloe: http://www.nitrolicious.com/blog/2006/11/30/chloe-admiralty-hk/

Not a bad idea. Its affordable and does look bad at all.
red sofas would make it look better i guess what do you say to that ?

Jeanne

You can buy veneered plywood in all types of woods. Veneered plywood looks much better (imho).

example of plywood with a walnut veneer:
http://www.dswoodworks.co.uk/global/images/portfolio/high_end/fullsize/dai_amp_polly_kitchen_walnut_veneered_plywood/001.JPG

We have a wall done in plywood that came from a packing crate from Iceland. Interesting since Iceland does not have trees. The plywood actually came from BC and was sent to Iceland made into crates and then send back to BC where it become our wall. All of our walls have stories.

We cut it into 6 inch wide planks (by 8 feet long) and laid it horizontally on the wall. It looks both chic and homey at the same time and can be dressed up or down easily.

It is first grade plywood and does not have splinters, nor did we varnish or treat it in anyway.

If you're worried that bugs might eat your walls, you got a whole lot more problem than your walls. Bugs would eat a whole lot of house before they ever tasted a wall.

Wood paneled walls can look good, or bad, depending.

My main problem with wood walls: it's totally unforgiving when it comes to hanging art or other things (shelving, sconces...). You can spackle drywall, but what does one do about holes in wood panels?

I think it's gorgeous

luv it. does it give off any creepy gases.

I believe the word is no. (repeat. no.)

i think the picture is cunningly cheating by being all pastel (oh the joys of picture editing ...).
maybe a very new wall might look like that - or did they stain it? unstained, it will grow much darker and more yellow with time, and that is not going to look as nice as in this picture.

I have seen a number of plywood paneled interiors which were simply spectacular. As a result, I considered using plywood to cover a wall in my living room. My plan was to use maple or birch faced 1/2 inch plywood, finished in a clear varnish. Although a project like this can be done for moderate cost, the time involved in the finishing of the panels was more than I cared to invest.

I think it's cool, but besides the nail holes, how would you clean areas near the light switch, etc? I'm not wild about shiny varnishes, either. I'd want a pale, driftwoody kind of vibe.

The crates (Icelandic or otherwise) sound cool, though.

That exact article inspired our basement reno last summer! I'd saved it for years, and when it was time to make-over our basement, I brought it out and that's what we went with after much discussion.

It was perfect for what we needed - to cover a lot of nothing, to keep it light in colour but cosy and to be really really affordable. The biggest problem was that the article claimed that the panels used were something like $6 or $8 (US) apiece, and they couldn't have been. Our contractor told us that the quality shown in the images are much more expensive sheets, more like $15 per panel, and that they had to have spent hours flipping through finding only the most gorgeous ones. He told us that a little too late, though neither we nor our contractors were the type to stand at Home Depot and agonize over the grain in plywood panels anyway. Looking back, since we only used about 10 panels, I'd say that upgrade would have been worth it for any other place, but for our basement rec room it's fine. About $100 more in materials is nothing compared to the labour. We also had to use a more obvious strapping to hide the seams, but decided that didn't matter much to us. "Unfinished" is all it was ever going to be, as we kept the cement floor and just painted it, and kept the ceiling (joists, really) unfinished and just sprayed all that white once we'd emptied the room. We wanted to spend more fixing up an awful old bathroom down there and turning one small room into a walk-in cedar closet for our vintage and winter clothing. We live in a circa 1903 semi-detached home, and have no closets upstairs.

Ours have three coats of a satin varnish, after one light sanding, and do feel a bit rough - but we don't go around feeling our walls. We have no problems with dust or cleaning around switches. As with any wall in our house, a damp microfiber cloth with some Dr. Bronner's takes care of smudges and we do a light wash once in a while; we use a magic eraser for tougher marks. And why am I saying we? I do all the cleaning. (I guess the use of we on this site is contagious.) It's been a year, and they haven't darkened. It's my husband's "man cave", so we have musical instruments and posters he's made hanging We just chose the spots carefully - nothing's moving around any time soon, and so we're not going to freak about nail holes. There was one small hole that the contractor needed to fill, and he used a wood putty and it's not noticeable unless you're looking for it.

It's furnished with mid-century teak and musical instruments and accoutrements. It won't win any prizes, but I will speak up for plywood walls by saying it's great for non-fussy people for use in places that will never be perfect anyway; and when you see our before and after, I'm sure anyone would agree:

Before: http://www.flickr.com/photos/truthandbeauty/3441622551/in/photostream/

After: http://www.flickr.com/photos/truthandbeauty/3442438504/

And, apologies for the photo editing - but I don't have any other pictures hand and have already spent enough time blathering on without running downstairs to take new ones!

The first comment here sums up my thoughts... inadvertantly. I think it looks like it has been done on a bad budget tv show. I'm gonna go with nope.

I was going to say I didn't really like this idea... mostly because of how the seams between the plywood looked in my head.

Then I saw Marla's pictures and the way she put molding over the seams. WOW! That looks really great Marla! Consider me converted! (And consider that picture saved so I can use it for a future resource ;) )

It entirely depends on the face veneer.

If it's construction grade and left natural, then no way - it will never look like anything other than someone's garage...
...but choose a beautiful birch veneer as we have pictured - or another wood species for the face - and I don't see the problem.