Abstract: To study the seismic performance of steel plate shear wall and the deformation capacity of the outer decorative layer in the steel structure residence, four test components of the full-scaled concrete-filled square steel tubular frame-steel plate shear walls with vertical stiffeners were tested under constant vertical load and cyclic lateral loads. Through quasi-static hysteresis loading of each specimen, the influence of the outer decorative layer and vertical stiffener arrangements on the seismic performance of the steel plate shear wall was discussed. High bearing capacity, favorable energy dissipation capacity and ductility of all specimens were found even under the combined action of vertical load and horizontal repeated load. The outer decorative layer could improve the initial lateral stiffness and the energy dissipation capacity during the early stage, but speed up the degradation of the capacity in the post-peak stage. No other significant difference was found between the specimens with or without the outer decorative layer. The peak loads of specimens with equidistant arrangement of vertical stiffeners were slightly higher than that with the uneven distant arrangements of stiffeners, and the other seismic behaviors of both were almost the same. On the basis of experiments and existing literature, the classification of harmful displacement angles for steel plate shear walls with outer decorative layer was proposed.