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Painting over wallpaper?

15 years ago

Can anyone advise me? We're preparing our home to put it on the market after only owning it for a short time. The master bedroom is huge and is covered with ugly wallpaper on all the walls and the ceiling. I'm a real believer in stripping paper, not painting over it. However, we discovered in another room in the house that the previous owners did not size the walls before papering onto the new drywall...and even using all the best techniques for removal, we ended up having to redo the drywall because removing the paper destroyed it. I will not do that again! This paper is on like cement. I've been told that I could mud the seams; sand well; KILZ the whole thing and then paint. Not optimum, but possible? It's got to either be painted or papered over. Please don't tell me to strip it. I just don't think I can. What do you think?

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Comments (6)

paintguy22
15 years ago
I would only paint wallpaper as a last resort. I would even drywall over the wallpaper before painting it.
Faron79
15 years ago
Wallpaper on the CEILING?!?!?!

Dear Lord...some people should be 4&8sa965Q2$*(#A8!!!

* If you do decide to skim over the seams, get every molecule of dust off after sanding.
* Use an OIL primer. Don't use ANY Kilz primer.
* Use Zinsser's BIN, Odorless oil, or Cover-Stain.
* Now you're ready for 2 coats of Latex.

I'd at least consider priming the ceiling with the mentioned primers; then...hiring someone to skim the ceiling smooth/or texture it; then using a LATEX PRIMER after ALL dust is removed.
>>> NOW you could use a nice Latex ceiling color, and at least the CEILING would look great!!!

Faron
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Good luck tying to get that grass cloth off, especially if there was not a real good coat of paint under it before it was hung! The problem is that you have a very thick wallpaper with several coats of paint on it. To remove any wallpaper, you have to get water to the paste that is holding it on the wall. That thick coat of paint is going to fight water penetration. I normally dislike the "Paper Tiger" device which punctures the wall paper with thousands of little holes, but in this case, it may be your only hope of getting the water down to the paste. Don't spray down more than one wall at a time with water. This is going to be a slow, tedious project. Finish removing one wall before wetting down the next. You will undoubtedly damage the drywall, so be prepared to do extensive patching of the ripped and gouged drywall. As to new textured wallcovering: As PaintGuy states, there are heavily textured wallcoverings on the market that are designed to be painted overright from the start. These papers are mainly out of Europe. It is known as "Raufazur' in Germany, where the home improvement stores have aisles of the stuff. There are also commercial grade heavy vinyl wallcoverings with grasscloth textures embossed on them. These come in colors and can also be painted over. You will need to go to a paint store that still maintains a library of wallcovering books. These are fewer and fewer as wallpaper as become much less popular in later years. I do like the looks of painted wallcovering. If you ever have the opportunity to visit The Chicago Art Institute, you will notice that the walls upon which these grand old paintings hang, is painted grasscloth or heavy burlap like texture. One other thought: heavy textured wallcoverings often look very interesting when a faux glaze is rubbed over them. The glaze gets stuck in all the texture when the surface is wiped with rags, giving a very different look than the plain painted surface.
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Thank you. Christopher - is cleaning unnecessary do you think? Lisa - the wallpaper in the room I want to do first is in in really good condition., The paper in the hallway is not, and there is a bathroom with awful pinkish wallpaper with fans on it, and a bright red rug, I just have no idea right now what to do about that. I doubt I'd bother to paint it as just a little coat of paint won't help it. We just use another bathroom for now because no one can stand to go in that one! Bossy - I get what your saying, but we have major things that need addressed first (we just had a huge retaining wall next to the house fail for instance), spending money and time on a cosmetic fix like drywall just isn't up there in priority right now, especially because it's complicated by really nice woodwork that could potentially be damaged by removing. However, I really don't want to look at the dark ugly wallpaper anymore and my kids really want their room decorated a way they like. This is work and money for a less than perfect solution but when I know the perfect solution is a loooong way off, it's acceptable to me. I don't want to be looking at this paper 5 years from now because we intended to get to it "soon". While I hope we can, I don't want to count on it at this point. When I married my DH the walls the bedroom in his house were painted over wallpaper. I never even noticed until he pointed it out to me, so I do have an idea of what it will look like if I can do it right.
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Christopher Nelson Wallcovering and Painting
15 years ago
I would only paint wallpaper as a last resort. I would even drywall over the wallpaper before painting it.

I agree

Wallpaper on the CEILING?!?!?!

Actually, not un common,I have papered many ceilings

Use an OIL primer. Don't use ANY Kilz primer.
Agreed
sherwoodva
15 years ago
ajs, did you buy my FIL's TH in Ellicot City? They had wall paper on the walls and ceiling of the master BR.

Another crazy question - did the real estate agent say the wall paper was ugly? As christophern said, it's not that uncommon. If it isn't damaged or dirty, I would leave it. That is a lot of work for little payback.
Faron79
15 years ago
Please tell us there's no "velour"-fuzz on the paper??!?!
(then...a blowtorch is required...)

Yeah, there's no way to win this battle sometimes...
* Because the walls weren't sized/primed-for-paper, it can be a HELL of a job.
* As Colorcrazy pointed out, there may not be much payback either. It would depend on the market, etc., and other features of the house.
* As I mentioned, I'd consider Oil-priming the ceiling and/or walls...AFTER CLEANING THEM! Then, hire someone to either smooth-coat or texture-spray. Prime again with normal Latex primer when sanding-dust is removed....
* NOW...you've at least got a "new" surface, ready-for-paint!! This may be appealing to some as a selling-point.

Faron
ajs_1010
Original Author
15 years ago
Thanks for all your thoughts. No, we're not in Ellicot City! It's not so much that the paper is ugly as it is overwhelming. It's a white background with vines and flowers, and it's well done and clean without any damage, but it is rather dizzying. We bought it anyway, thinking we'd just strip it. Maybe I should just leave it and hope the next buyers make the same assumption that replacing it would be easy. (While it wasn't velour, we did replace the shag orange carpet and raised platform for the sofa in the family room!)Thanks again.

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