I should note that my electrical conduit pipe was used in a different manner. It is not the same as shelland's or fmian's on-wall issue. Mine was for running from inside the ceiling down to the floor, where the walls are concrete block with sheetrock right over them. No space inside.

The conduit would look horrible in those setups pictured above. In mine, people don't even see it. And if they do, they probably assume it is a support beam for the house, as this is the basement. I actually do have a couple steel poles that do that work, they show in the other room, and this doesn't look much different.