Media Wall Plasterboarding and Skimming in Greenwich, SE10

This project was carried out in a modern ground-floor or lower-ground residential property in Greenwich, SE10. The living room featured recessed downlights set into a flat plasterboard ceiling, neutral-painted walls, and fitted carpet throughout. The homeowner had commissioned a bespoke media wall unit to be built into the main living room wall, incorporating a large upper TV recess with an OSB-backed mounting panel, a narrow central slot for cable routing, and a lower opening for a bio-ethanol or electric fire surround. The build required a complete plasterboarding and skim finish to match the existing room surfaces.

Prior to the plastering stage, the media wall timber frame had been constructed by a joiner and was ready to be boarded and finished. The frame incorporated two distinct open recesses — a large upper alcove backed with OSB board housing a wall-mounted TV bracket and a bank of multiple power sockets, and a lower rectangular opening designed to accommodate a fire insert. Cable conduits and a HDMI or power cable were already routed through the lower void. The bare timber stud frame, raw OSB panels, and exposed screw fixings were all visible, indicating the structure was at first-fix stage and needed plasterboarding, bead work, and a full skim coat before decoration could begin.

The scope of work on this project covered the full plasterboarding and skim coat of a bespoke media wall structure in a Greenwich living room. The work included: - Fixing 12.5mm tapered-edge plasterboard to all external faces of the timber stud media wall frame, including the flat front face, top soffit, and both side returns - Cutting and fitting plasterboard neatly around both the upper TV recess and the lower fire opening, maintaining clean, square apertures - Applying galvanised metal angle bead to all external corners of the media wall frame, including the top outside corners and the vertical edges of both recesses, to create straight, durable arrises - Applying galvanised stop bead around the perimeter of both openings where the plasterboard met the existing painted wall surfaces - Securing all boards with drywall screws at the correct centres to ensure a firm substrate - Applying a bonding PVA wash across all boarded surfaces and bead joints before skimming - Finishing the entire media wall structure with two coats of British Gypsum multi-finish plaster — a scratch coat trowelled on and ruled flat, followed by a tight finishing coat to produce a flat, paintable surface - Feathering the skim coat neatly into the existing surrounding wall plaster at all edges

Before any plasterboard was fixed, the timber frame was checked for plumb and square, and any protruding fixings were punched back flush. The OSB backing panels in both recesses were left exposed as specified by the client, to allow the TV bracket and fire unit to be fixed directly to them post-completion. Galvanised angle bead was measured, cut, and fixed with drywall screws along every external corner of the frame. Stop bead was fitted around the edges of both openings to create a clean edge where the new skim would terminate. All boarded surfaces received a diluted PVA bonding coat, applied with a brush, and were left to become tacky before the first coat of multi-finish was applied.

With all boards fixed and beads secured, the skimming process began with a scratch coat of British Gypsum multi-finish plaster mixed to a smooth, lump-free consistency. The plaster was applied to the front face of the media wall first, working from the top down, and then continued across the side returns and top soffit. The scratch coat was trowelled on at approximately 2–3mm thickness, ruled off flat using a straight edge to remove any high spots, and cross-scratched lightly to provide a mechanical key for the finishing coat. Once the scratch coat had firmed sufficiently, the finishing coat was applied. This second coat was trowelled tightly across the entire face of the structure, with particular care taken around the beaded openings of both recesses to ensure the arris lines were straight and defined. The plasterer worked the finish coat in overlapping passes, repeatedly trowelling back the surface as it stiffened to compress and flatten the plaster. The edges where the new plaster met the existing painted wall were feathered out carefully using a small trowel and a damp sponge to avoid any proud joints or ridges. The finished surface was polished off with a clean, damp trowel to produce a flat, closed face ready for mist coat and decoration. The OSB-backed recesses were left unplastered as agreed, preserving the substrate integrity for the TV bracket and fire unit installation.

The primary challenge on this project was achieving flat, straight bead lines around both the upper TV recess and the lower fire opening while keeping the overall face of the media wall flush with the surrounding wall plaster. Because the wall structure protruded into the room and had multiple internal returns, each face had to be plastered independently and then blended at the beaded corners without creating any steps or misalignments. The junction between the freshly skimmed media wall and the existing painted plaster on the surrounding wall also required careful feathering to avoid a visible ridge that would show through paint.

To ensure straight, consistent corner lines, all angle beads were checked for plumb and level with a spirit level before fixing, and any out-of-square sections of the timber frame were packed behind the board prior to boarding. Stop bead was fitted precisely at every opening edge to give the plasterer a definitive stopping point. The scratch coat was ruled off flat using a long straight edge across the full face of the structure to eliminate any bow in the boards. At the junctions with the existing wall, the multi-finish skim was feathered back over a 100mm band using a clean, flexible trowel, and any slight ridges were sponged flat before the finishing coat was polished off.

The completed media wall presented a fully skimmed, flat surface across all faces — the front panel, side returns, and top soffit — with sharply defined beaded corners at every external edge. Both the upper TV recess and the lower fire opening retained their clean, square apertures with neat stop bead edges, ready to receive the TV bracket fitting and fire unit installation. The surrounding living room walls, already painted, were untouched and the new skim feathered cleanly into the existing surface. The entire structure was left at a consistent, closed finish, ready for a mist coat and two finish coats of emulsion.

The client in Greenwich received a media wall structure that was fully ready for decoration within two days of the plastering team arriving on site. The TV bracket and fire unit openings were preserved exactly as specified, with clean stop bead edges that required no additional filling. The flat, closed face of the skim coat meant the decorator could apply a mist coat directly without any board joint preparation. The client was able to book their decorator and electrician to complete the final installations within the same week, keeping the overall project on schedule.

A media wall involves multiple planes, internal and external corners, and open recesses that all need to be perfectly flat and square before decoration begins. Poorly fixed bead will result in wavy arris lines that remain visible through paint, and an uneven face coat will telegraph any board joints or screw positions once emulsion is applied. An experienced plasterer understands how to rule off each face independently, how to set bead so corners align across the full height of the structure, and how to feather new plaster into existing painted surfaces without creating a ridge. Getting these details right at the plastering stage means no remedial filling or sanding before decoration.