Wallflower

If I asked you to name your favorite interior design material, what would you say? I’m willing to bet that I would hear answers like wood, marble, maybe even some rattan, because that's so popular right now. I'm sure someone would choose to be cheeky and say something like houseplants. But what I don't think I would hear anyone say is that their favorite interior design material is drywall, and yet drywall is the most prevalent interior design building material in North America and many other parts of the world. If you look around your house, chances are all of your walls and your ceiling are made from drywall, and then painted the color of your choice. Now I know what you’re thinking! Or at least, I know what I would be thinking. Why would I listen to a podcast episode about drywall? Just the word sounds very unglamorous and makes me think of Bob Villa and the boring parts of Home Depot. If the world of interiors was a sandwich, drywall would be the bread. It holds everything together, and provides a fairly neutral base for other, more spicy elements to take center stage.  Also like bread, it's mostly noticeable if it's bad, but what does good or bad drywall even look like and what’s the recipe? Today we're going take a peak at the facts about drywall, it’s pros and cons, and some creative alternatives for you adventurous types.

But first, let’s talk about the Color of The Week. Day Light Saving Time will begin this Sunday, March 13th, giving us a whole extra glorious hour of sunlight in the evening, and officially kicking off our exit from winter, and the ramp up to spring time in the Northern Hemisphere. To celebrate, the color of the week 3500 Kelvins. This is the color temperature of the light in the sky at approximately sunrise and sunset. You can bring this warm, moody glow into your home by choosing smart LED bulbs and programming them to this precise number. Kelvins are a unit of thermodynamic temperature measurement that use absolute zero as a base. If you’d like to hear more about Kelvins and how they affect our perception of color, check out the episode “You Light up My Life.”

There are so many techniques used to build walls, especially throughout the course of history. From intricate stone masonry to lathe and plaster, or even more unconventional practices like rammed earth. Walls can be comprised of many things. But the most common construction method in any type of modern building is wood or steel studs that are then clad in sheets of drywall. What I have found, both from working with clients and from teaching interior design students is that even though we are surrounded by drywall, or maybe because of that, we don’t really understand what drywall is or how it can be used, so we’re going to do a lightening round review of drywall.

Also known as gypsum board, sheet rock, and wallboard; dry wall has been the go-to outfit for interior walls since the 1940’s, a few years after US Gypsum put their first product on the market. Drywall is composed of calcium sulfate dihydrate, or gypsum, mixed with varying additives, sandwiched between two sheets of paper. The additives in drywall will vary depending on the type and the goal it needs to achieve. Some are formulated to be extra moisture resistant for bathrooms. Others aim to provide an extra sound barrier. Gypsum is a soft, white mineral that is commonly found and used primarily for its binding properties. Gypsum is sometimes used in tooth paste, and if you’ve ever seen a long clear selenite rod at your local gem shop, that’s gypsum in crystal form. Just the other night there was a clue on Jeopardy about gypsum - it’s the primary mineral that comprises the pristine looking dunes of White Sands National Park. 

Drywall is available in a handful of sizes, but the most common is a four foot by eight foot sheet. The installation process is fairly quick, it can happen in a couple of days, and there are two steps. First, the sheets of gypsum are drilled directly into the studs of a framed wall. The sheets are usually staggered, just like bricks, to provide stability. This process is called hanging. Then the seams are concealed in a process referred to as mudding, taping, or floating. There are six standard, industry recognized levels at which drywall can be finished, that’s zero through five. Each level up provides a smoother, more seamless looking finish. Level 0 is completely unfinished drywall, and level 5  is the full enchilada - screws and seams are covered in joint tape and there’s a full skim coat over the whole surface. Most walls that you see are finished to Level 4, with Level 5 only needed if the final finish of the wall is something like a high gloss paint or a detailed wall graphic,  because these finishes would highlight any small imperfections in the walls surface. Each level requires more time and care than the one before it, and therefore more cost. 

One of the reasons popcorn ceilings are so common in homes is because it allows builders to only finish the drywall ceilings at a Level 3, and then add the textured spray as the final finish to cover the seams, which saves time and money. If you’ve taken the DIY challenge of scrapping off a popcorn ceiling, you may notice the drywall seams become more visible. Similarly, in rental units, it’s common to see walls painted with a flat paint finish, as opposed to the more common eggshell or satin. Even though this finish scuffs more easily and shows hand and finger prints more clearly, it masks drywall seams and sins, allowing for less painstaking attention to detail in the construction phase.

All that being said, drywall is still the fastest and more cost effective way to build walls and this accounts for its widespread use. In North America, 42 billion square feet of drywall is purchased and install each year. The average new American home contains over 7 metrics tons of drywall, that’s roughly the same mass as an elephant.

In terms of sustainability, drywall straddles the line. There is typically a high percentage of recycled gypsum used in drywall, but the energy used to create these sheets is no small matter. Around 1% of greenhouse gasses come from the making of drywall.

From a design point of view, drywall is pretty expected. Or “obvious“ as one of my former co-workers used to say. Like I mentioned before, nobody is  starting a drywall fan club, except for maybe construction workers, but the look of it is pretty vanilla. And if you know you want to have a finished wall with a unique look, it’s possible to forgo drywall completely, so let’s look at a few other options to help get your imagination started.

I mentioned this in the episode “TV Star” where we look at Chip and Joanna Gaines and their obsession and revitalization of shiplap as a building material. Shiplap was a common wall surface in older Texan homes that was used in lieu of drywall. So walls would be framed out with studs and then wood boards were directly nailed to the studs. No drywall involved and in this case, I think that's awesome. There is nothing stopping you from taking wood, whether it's wood planks, sheets of plywood or beadboard, and adhering them directly to the wall studs. This makes a lot of sense if you are remodeling or building new, and you know you want a wood wall - it will save you money, rather than having a full gypsum wall constructed and then going back in to install wood on top of the drywall. The only advantage to applying wood over drywall is  a little bit of acoustic protection, but unless you’ve got  some kind of a recording studio or music space that needs special treatment, this isn’t necessary.

The other option is to rethink the construction of walls completely. Stone or brick masonry walls can bring warmth, visual interest, and character to your interior, and rather than superficially slapping these materials over a perfectly fine gypsum wall, consider building the wall directly out of these materials. These types of wall assemblies take up more room than a standard sheetrock wall, but if you’re creating a dividing wall in a big open space or looking add a real wow moment, this is an impactful way to go about it.

There’s also the option to go full brutalist and showcase concrete masonry units or CMU blocks- this is only for the modern design lover, and should be contrasted with lots of warm toned wood and soft textiles.

Going all the way back to 2002, there was an amazing example of alternative wall materials creative by a professor and his class from Auburn University called the Rural Studio. The professor, Samuel Mockabee, and his students design a house for a client named Lucy, with the majority of the interior and exterior walls made from compress recycled carpet tiles. This aesthetic was somewhere in between a patchwork quilt and stacked stone, and had incredible insulating properties. The students experimented with several mock ups before building the final home, and found that the carpet tiles did not retain moisture, mildew, or burn. Not every local jurisdiction would allow for this level of experimentation, but it demonstrates the world of possibilities outside of drywall.

Looking towards the future, there are some exciting alternatives being explore right now, and although they aren’t ready to be rolled out at Home Depot, they are definitely worth keeping your eye on. Particularly, mycelium. This is a microscopic structure that exists all around us to create fungi. Over the past decade, scientists, designers, and entrepreneurs have been studying mycelium not only to replace things like plastic packaging and leather, but to use material that would otherwise pollute our environment to feed the mycelium. Currently, there are variations of mycelium boards, tiles, and bricks that look a lot like particle board, and there is the potential to grow products in completely custom shapes and sizes, which could reduce the amount of labour required to construct walls. There is a great in-depth discussion on this topic from the Center for Architecture here in New York City that I will link in the show notes, and if you haven’t watched the documentary Fantastic Fungi on Netflix, I would highly recommend it.

Now, if you have your heart set on a paint color, wallpaper, or elaborate chair rail, drywall is your best bet every time. But don’t feel afraid to color outside the lines a little and explore the any options outlined in this episode. That’s all I have for you today, short and sweet. Please take the best care of yourself, and I will talk to you in the next episode.