One way to quickly improve the look of your interior environment is to reinvent its borders - your walls, that is. Whether those walls are in a single room, a small guesthouse or even an entire home, walls that look fresh and new have a peculiar way of introducing a brand new ambience. This home improvement decision is preferable to living with walls that are worn from age, wear, and tear.

Replacing walls doesn't have to be a major construction project.

Quite the contrary! It's much easier to cover your existing walls with plasterboard than it would be to tear them down and hang new material, such as Drywall. Brand new plaster walls can be built in a matter a days by using 1/4 or even 3/8-inch plasterboard. You can imagine from their small thickness that they hardly make a dent in the dimensions of any room.

Your contractor can take a look at your existing walls and determine if plasterboard is appropriate or if it would better to tear them down and start from scratch. If your contractor determines that plasterboard would do just fine, then the next step is determining which application method would be best. There are two ways to apply new plaster walls over old ones.

How It's Done

Your contractor may decide that it's better to nail them up or to laminate them. If your old walls are already plasterboard, then your new walls will be nailed. If your old walls are plaster however, your contractor will laminate the new ones onto the ones that already exist.

But before any of that occurs, your existing walls need to be surfaced - and that's just a fancy way of saying that they need to be repaired. Protruding bulges or bumps will need sanding for example, so that the new walls will have a flat surface to adhere or nail to. Loose wallpaper or existing plaster will need to be removed and if your walls were painted with a glossy paint or finished with any other type of glossy substance, they'll need to be slightly roughened so that the new plaster walls can securely grip onto their new surface.

After your existing walls are prepared (described above), all that's left to do is to hang the new ones.

White Walls Belong on Tire Rims!

Now while you're thinking about all of this, you might have formed an image of plain white plasterboard but guess what? Plasterboard doesn't have to be white. Plaster walls can be installed with a wood finish (teak, cherry, or walnut) or they can arrive already colored to match the decor in your home. Pre-colored plaster walls have a finish that's comparable to semi-gloss paint.

But in addition to pre-colored plaster walls, you can also install those that are already insulated, or waterproofed. If that's not enough, you can probably tickle your fancy with plaster walls that are covered with a textured overlay. This type of plasterboard never needs painting (never - ever!) and they can be easily cleaned with regular soap and water.