Controlling the water adhesion is extremely important for various applications such as for water harvesting. Here, superhydrophobic (low adhesion) and parahydrophobic (high adhesion) substrates are both obtained from hydrophilic polymers. We show in the work that a judicious choice in the monomer structure used for electropolymerization can lead to these two properties. Using a phenyl group, parahydrophobic properties are reached due to the formation of nanofilaments. By contrast, using a naphthalene or a biphenyl group, superhydrophobic properties are obtained due the formation of both micro- and nanostructures. (C) 2015 Published by Elsevier Inc.