The plywood counter top post I did yesterday got me thinking about how versatile plywood is. It’s no secret that I sometimes get lazy with my renovations midway through. I’ve often asked the hubby if we can just do something fun with plywood rather than sheet rock the walls. The answer is always no. But that doesn’t mean I can’t write about it.

For our Kingston “country” renovation, we chose to go with board and bat walls. We did actually do board and bat, but afterwards our neighbor came in to see it and asked why we didn’t just use plywood under the batten? D’oh! We totally could’ve gotten away with that since we were going with a pickled white anyway. It would’ve saved hours. Actually, days. So, plywood under horizontal or vertical strips of wood could work. Or even raised panels, as in raised panel wainscoting? Are your creative juices flowing yet?

If you really want to go the cheapest, fastest, easiest route, consider just slapping that plywood up there with some paint or stain. The photo above is Cafe Macchiato in Newburgh, NY. Although I didn’t ask, I’m under the impression they just did a quick stain job. To me, the end result looks like a faux leather technique. Whether it was intended or not, it doesn’t look half bad! Consider bright stains and washes such as reds or purples. Could look very cool!

The fact is, you can’t really do much to screw up plywood. If you don’t like it and want to change to sheet rock, it won’t get destroyed when you take it down. And you can always use it elsewhere for all of your building needs.