In my little corner of the world a very light orange peel is the current norm, and what we have (and are doing again in our new house). My mom's house has smooth, and we find that it shows the wear of daily life much more than ours does (and she's super careful and gentle with her house - much more so than just about anyone else I know, including us.)

Wall texture is a mater of personal preference, maintenance and expense. Flat taped drywall is easier to repair/touchup and the least expensive to install. I have both flat and swirled plaster in my house. Although the swirled is more expensive to install due to extra material and extra skill level, but more elegant looking it is a big pain to patch. It is very hard and tedious to match the new patch to the current wall. If I was starting with new walls I would choose flat drywall.

I would also choose flat drywall. No texture

For most of my life I lived in an area where everything was smooth- no texture anywhere. At first I didn’t love the texture because I wasn’t used to (moved to new area for new build), but have become used to it now. We had three options- orange peel, knock down, and a third that almost felt gritty. We went with orange peel which was still smooth to the touch but not heavy on texture. I love it now - and if you have kids... it’s a nice natural camouflage for minor dings!

I think cost varies regionally. Around me flat is a more expensive option.

When I lived in NY everyone had flat and it was the expected finish. Now I'm in FL and unless you live in a house worth many millions, no one has flat walls since they just don't have the skills to do it here.

We went with a light orange peel texture. If I were in an area where flat walls were not a big uncharge, I would have done flat walls.

Orange peel is the norm in my area but I stuck to my guns for flat, also called #4. It's more expensive and I was told the finishers cursed me - lol.

Flat. I think that is all that is done here.

In the Boston area all gypsum board is normally finished with "veneer plaster", commonly called "blueboard" since the gypsum board is a blue-grey color. In its simplest form, its an 8th of an inch thick skim coat of real plaster (not joint compound) troweled on by hand. The finishers use special hinged stilts and make sweeping motion with the trowel and move unbelievably fast.

Its usually cheaper then taped drywall because it requires less time and there is no sanding. It does require more skill but its easy to find in this area probably because of the plaster tradition brought over from the old country (primarily Ireland) that shifted from horsehair plaster to veneer plaster in the 50's and 60's. At any rate, no one wants taped drywall after seeing veneer plaster.

It can have any texture you want but I've never seen it other than smooth. Its so beautiful I've see it left unpainted. Its more difficult to damage the surface, easy to rear and paint lasts much longer.

If you drive west of Boston it doesn't take long for it to no longer to be available. Someone could make a fortune spreading this skill across the country.

Here's a link to a video from Ths Old House.

Ads from Home Depot:

My texture is just smooth. I didn't specify when this house was built - since everyone I know and was working with realized that "popcorn" is understandably in the dustbin of history. It was one of the few things I didn't think to specify one way or the other - and I'm perfectly fine with smooth and flat, since the sheet rocking tapers did an excellent job to begin with.

I'd have been just as happy with orange peel.

Just googled "knock down texture". No, I wouldn't want that - but I think it could look fine in a southwestern style house.

What did you end up choosing? I am facing this same dilemma for our new build.

We decided on knock down

The difficulty with knock down is if it ever needs repair, it's harder to match.