We found 3 layers of painted over paper under the top layer. I too have tried it before and ruined the walls. I had a wallpaper remover take off the first layer, down to the painted layer. We primed with oil based primer..heavy duty stuff. Drywall guys then skim coated all the walls, we just primed over that again this weekend, it's beautiful, smooth and paint ready.

I did a small bathroom myself over the summer, and had to call in a drywall guy after I destroyed the wallboard.....he did 2 coats of plaster over the oil primed paper, then resealed again with primed, painted, you would never know the difference! I hate wallpaper!

Good luck

Depends on the condition of your walls and the paper.

No doubt, the ideal solution is to remove wallpaper whenever possible. Added layers of paper or paint on top of it will just add to any imperfections or problems and cause them to look worse or even for the paper to come off the wall. That's the real concern. If the paper can be removed, it is best to remove it and avoid a bigger pain down the road.

Now, that said, I have removed a lot of wallpaper (kitchen as well as every bedroom and bathroom in this house for starters), but my last house had wallpaper that seemed to be superglued to the walls and we could not get it off without destroying the sheetrock. We tried every method known, then sought professional help.

They told us to secure or remove any loose edges or corners we might find, float the wall by skimming with joint compound (primarily to smooth out any seam line but also for any torn corners or other imperfections), sand smooth, then paint with the original shellac KILZ. This is one time to not use the water based -- the shellac will go into that paper better and help bind it to the sheetrock. From that point on, you consider it part of the sheerock and move on.

You notice I didn't list dining room of this house above? Well, it was fully wallpapered too -- we were just so eager to paint over the the pink paint that we took the outlet covers off and cut those in after the first coat instead of before. The pink paint was covering a pink floral -- it had been like the rest of the house! We sought out the seems and checked them, checked the corners and decided it was secure enough that we were going to leave it. That was 9 years ago. We recently did a wall repair, floated it and repainted -- still looks perfect. Since then, I've hear applying wallpaper and painting over it as a suggestion for creating a smooth, no-texture wall finish and wondered if that would work well if you use a permanent bond to the wall rather than a typical paste that is meant to be removed.

Test the wall and the paper. Worst case, new sheetrock is not that expensive (it's the labor to float it that runs up the cost). You don't want anything underneath your new kitchen to cause problems down the road. If it's an open area where you would not have to remove anything to repair, then you are just taking chances with paint and inconvenience. If you have to disconnect, remove, take apart things, then you are talking about more expense, more inconvenience, and the risk of damage or replacement of other parts of your kitchen. Either way you go, proper wall prep is worth the time and hassle -- but that's temporary and the results will be good and can last a lifetime.