East or West, home is the best, and who doesn’t want the best home? One way to give the rooms in your home an instant wow factor is to do up the walls, either by treating all four of them or by creating a single attention-grabbing feature wall.

The simplest way is to give the walls a lick of colour. Changing the colour can change the entire look and mood of a room. You can paint the room in one single colour or two complementary or contrasting ones. You can paint bands of thick horizontal or vertical alternating stripes in two colours, or the same colour in a matte and glossy finish, or lighter and darker shades.

Texturing adds character to walls and also hides any imperfections. There are several options to chose from, including sand swirl, mud swirl, sand texture, sponging, Venetian finish and drywall stencil. Local artisans may use their own peculiar names, tools and techniques for a particular look.

Wallpapering is another option. You can do whole walls or just put a border around the room.

There are many more ways to treat a wall besides paint or paper. If there’s a fabric you love, like ajrak or banarsi or damask, you can upholster the walls in it to give a soft look. Mirrored walls add depth and dimension and make a room come alive. Bricks add an earthy charm and make it warm and cosy. Tile, wood and stone are also materials worth considering. A single feature wall would work better when using these materials.

If you want to put wood panels on the walls, another option is wainscoting. The wood panels cover only two-thirds of the wall, so the room doesn’t get overpowered with too much wood. You can paint the wood a cool white, a lovely eclectic green or blue, or leave it au naturel, and set it off with paint or paper on the rest of the wall. With a grooved plate rail moulding at the end of the wainscoting, you can secure pictures or plates you might want to display.

If you don’t want too much wood in your room, but want the display, you can mount a single panel wall shelf or rack around the room, about one thirds from the ceiling, and perch your favourite things on it, like your collection of hand-painted ceramics, trophies, shells, masks, brass knick-knacks, sports memorabilia or teapots. Glass display cases and niches are also good for display.

Your wall can display your personality and interests. Hang tin plates with humorous art and text, or fill a wall with graffiti of inspirational quotes and phrases, names, words and graphics. Showcase an ethnic dress or craft like rilli, tapestries, embroideries, antiques, china, or your collection of stamps, coins, butterflies, pebbles, tickets, etc.

For a classical look, you can try moulding, the decorative or functional trim on a wall. Moulding can transform a room from empty to elegant. You can go for a cornice to enhance the top of the wall where it meets the ceiling, or you can do a chair rail, to divide the painted or wallpapered portion of a wall from the plastered or panelled portion. Mouldings can be used to create panels to frame art and photographs, wallpaper, mirror panels, etc. There are different types of moulding to suit various jobs and decorative requirements. Mouldings can be set in plaster, carved from wood or moulded in plastic. They can be done in stone, cement or marble. They can be quite simple or incredibly intricate and ornate.

If you are an avid traveller, historian and geographer, you can cover one wall in a world map wallpaper, or a large framed world map. You can mark your previous and planned travels, your dream vacations and places of interest, your family and your history with pins, flags, or board marker.

If you are a bookworm, you can make the whole or a section of one or more walls library bookshelves.

Frames are a popular way to dress walls. Hang empty frames, big and small, gilt and ethnic, round, square and oval, with a framed mirror thrown in between, to create real interest. Photographs of self, family and friends personalise a room. Show your love for art by framing the works of famous artists, a poignant scene, or the scribbling of a toddler in your house, and fabric if you want to budget.

You could even blow up a favourite scene and make a mural of it, or have it hand painted.

Make a wall come alive with patterns, whether in wood cut-outs, paint swirls, or lights shining through pinholes in custom-coloured MDF sheets.

If you want to bring the outdoors in, you could set up a water feature, or tall indoor plants, but this would have to be in a ventilated, well-lit room, like an atrium.

In children’s rooms, mounted dart boards and basketball hoops, wall decals, stencils, own art work, chalk board or white board panels and framed portraits and certificates create an environment of fun and belonging.

These are just a few ideas; your imagination is the limit. Just be careful that your design is appropriate for the room’s size and function. Let it show your personality and appeal to you. Whether you stay in the whole day or come back after a long day, the room should feel like home and make you smile.