I would fill in some of the areas that need it, and try to match the texture so the patching isnt obvious, and then lightly sand, and just primer it and put two coats of paint on it. Its not a horrendous looking wall. Its a textured wall. Houses often had textured walls years ago. It appears that the wall is plaster, rather than sheetrock.

Skim coating the wall won't change the fact that it needs to be re-textured. You can do that to the whole room if you want but it would be expensive. I would just have a drywall person come in and make the proper repairs so it can be re-textured.

@cat_ky-every home in Florida, unless specified in a new build, is textured. It's just what's done here. The walls are drywall, but texturing is just a lazy, cheap way of avoiding the labor needed to do a nice, smooth drywall job. It was something I definitely had to adjust to after moving from the Northeast to Southwest Florida.

That was one of the must have's when we built in FL ... smooth walls and ceilings. Our custom builder had no problem getting it done.

CA also has a lot of textured walls. When we lived in CA and I wanted to put wallpaper in the master bedroom, I had to pay a guy to come in and skim coat all the walls. It took several days of applying a coat, drying, sanding and repeating those steps, until we had nice smooth and level walls.

I had a tile fireplace wall skim coated, came out very smooth. We had removed a recessed TV & couldn’t match the surrounding tile, therefore, had everything skim coated. Live in CA, all of our walls are smooth plaster.

A wall never needs to be textured that IMO is lazy drywall people telling you it is great. Yes it can be skim coated but it is hard to tell how much texture is there so talk to a good drywaller who can do it right. While you are in the mess anyway do the ceiling too

Thank you so much to katinparadise and Patricia CowrllConsulting for answering the question I didn’t know I was trying to ask! I live in a mid-90’s house with a soft orange texture on the walls throughout. Of course I’d love an all smooth texture, but not feasible right now. The bathroom in question has MULTIPLE divots, dents, and uneven plaster (drywall), and because it’s a small powder size, they REALLY stand out and have bugged me for the four years since we purchased. It sounds like I need to request drywall repair first, then repainting/texturing that will flow with the rest of my house. I hope that’s correct! Thank you so much again.

Patricia, you may think that a wall never needs to be textured, but it is incredibly common in Florida and in some parts of California as well. Skim coating an entire house is cost prohibitive for most people.

@Robin Han, you're wellcome! A good drywall person should be able to make that look good as new for you. IMO, a smooth wall when every other wall in your home is soft orange peel would look out of place. I find that painting with no more than an eggshell finish helps disguise the texture from far away. I have stayed in touch with my amazing realtor since we moved here 12 years ago and found him to be a great source of referrals when I needed work done. I hope you find someone who does a great job for you!

@katinparadise …. yes, there is a place for textured walls. Our MCM has smooth throughout, however, my neighbor’s Mediterranean style home has textured walls (lime wash, Venetian plaster? idk ) throughout, looks great, but wouldn’t look good in my home of course.

Perhaps Patricia is thinking of the orange peel texture, that is bad imo.

K Laurence-I promise you that I wish there was never a place for textured walls. They're almost nonexistent in the Northeast. They're everywhere here in Florida. Ours are a knockdown texture.

We have orange peel look texture on our walls. I ADORE it--would never have anything else, especially when raising kids. Any knick, blow out from a nail whatever is 100% camoflaged when you repaint w/o aveing to skim over. LOVE IT!!

Houses in Denver (surrounding metro area) tend to have textured walls (not the older homes). When I was shopping for a house several years ago, I was surprised because every where I've lived (Chicago, New York, Michigan, etc.), we always had flat walls.

It was really odd when I saw a few houses where someone had installed wallpaper on a textured wall (without skimming it first). I was adamant that I wanted flat walls/ceiling - people thought it was odd. If having textured walls (or ceilings) is the norm, people don't even notice it - and couldn't understand why it bothered me.

I have a sister (in Chicago) who had knockdown texture added (for a premium) to her open floor plan main level - the walls were made flat by the builder (this was back in 2004).

@arcy…. true, smooth walls, that’s what we have, show everything! especially handprints from my ”handsy” grandchildren & their friends. I can see why orange peel would be more practical with children.

Good paint, proper finish for hand prints in active areas is the answer. ..........

You don;t need texture. : (

It is the go to for a lower end build here., I am obliterating it from a project in the mid west in every important public area.

I put it in the same category with swirled or popcorn ceiling - always the companion to the aforementioned walls.

( nail blow out is the result of nails vs the appropriate screws into drywall. No nails, please, and no nail pops)

I dont have any texture in here, but, I have lived in plastered houses that have had textured walls and I liked them. My last house had textured ceilings, and all flat walls. The ceilings are a big pain to paint, but, other than that, I did like them. This house is all flat walls, and ceilings.

^^^

Common and almost expected with plaster, especially old homes.

Idea!!!

Since it’s a small powder room, have it all fixed and then skim coated to apply WALLPAPER!

You can take ick to fantastic!

Texture is still common but rare in custom work. Smooth and/or imperfect smooth walls take more time (& $$).

This can be coated. Takes time, usually sanding after each coat.

Textured walls are very typical in Texas, too. If done professionally, I don't mind them. However, I had some walls that I believe were previously wallpapered, wallpaper removed, and then DIY textured. You can just imagine...I scraped off all the texture and had them floated.