The home centers have a "column wrap". It is basically narrow wood strips attached to a canvas backing which wraps around the column. They have capitals and bases too. Or, we painted ours decorative.

I painted mine in my last basement project.

I wrapped mine in pine and stained them. They match the spindles, cabinets and corner closet that I also stained. They're about 7"x7" now. Since one is right smack dab in between the tv area and the game area, I asked a friend to cut out a piece of granite to slip around the post, making a sort of oval shelf to place beverages on. Beneath that, I'll attach little wooden shelves to the column for knick-knacks.

I am a remodeler. We generally wrap ours in 1x wood material, and add extra columns in line (faux) to break up the room. When remodeling a basement it is all about visual perception since you are dealing with a fixed area of the house.