Abstract Mortar coatings have a major influence on a building’s aesthetics, valorization, and habitability, with significant effects on the mechanical behavior of masonry walls. Multiple types of meshes can be embedded in plaster to enhance both masonry and coating’s mechanical behavior, restrain crack formation, enhance the bonding between layers, and increase the wall’s seismic resistance. The reinforcement technique has simple execution and is suitable for many applications, including the strengthening of non-load bearing walls, façade performance improvement, and restoration of historical buildings. However, there is an absence of guidelines and specifications for design and execution, resulting in high variability in field applications due to the many variables involved and few in-depth studies. This paper presents a systematic review of the effects of mesh reinforcement in cementitious mortar coatings and its major applications. Mortar and mesh parameters and influences, the status of analytical and simulation models, and suggestions for future research are described. buildings building s aesthetics valorization habitability walls coating formation layers wall resistance nonload non load improvement However indepth depth studies influences models described