Don't jump!!!

Venetian plaster?

Paintable wallpaper?

Beadboard paneling?

A glass of your favorite beverage, and upbeat music on the boombox, skim coat away...

-VW

Thanks - I needed that! I don't know what I am going to do but I am not going to stress about it.

I think you might have been temporarily blinded by the light at the end of the tunnel *grin*

Every square inch of wall in this house was wallpapered. We pulled it all down,

You done good! Serious Karma points are being awarded.

Faux techniques can take advantage of a multitude of problems. There was one chunk where my wallpaper stripping had also removed strips of the plasterboard paper. I didn't do such a great (perfect) job with the skim coating, but the sponged glaze looks better there than on any of the more smooth walls.

Have fun, VW

Here is a link that might be useful: Faux finishing at Hometime

katybug,
you mentioned you don't want it to look bad, so from reading what you are saying, I would much rather take the time and do it right than have to look at a room or wall all the time and never be satisfied because I was in a hurry . If you have knicks, gouges, scrapes, etc. the best thing to do of course is to mud it out; or even if you are going to do a finish with joint compound you are still doing work (unless you want a textured finish). So either way, there is going to need to be work from either way you choose.
Just throwing out some of the possibles.
Just doing a decorative finish over your wall imperfections with paint is not going to take care of the walls condition, unless you take some other kind of steps to correct what you have mentioned above.

One thing for sure after I removed all that paper, I surely wouldn't put anymore up. :)

What is left on the wall?

If nothing but holes, patch them, sand them, prime the wall and paint.

If scraps of old covering - wet the old covering with warm water and a garden type sprayer (on large areas)- let stand for 20-30 min. Re-wet if it starts to dry out.

After 20-30 min peel the scraps off one by one. Be careful of the wall board. Once all old paper is removed - take a spung and warm water with paste reomver mixed in and wash the wall lightly - this is to remove all the old paste.

Let dry overnight.

Next day - see what you have. Lightly mud over bad spots with lightweight spackle or drywall mud. Thin coat(s). sand smooth.

Prime entire wall with Porter Paints Blankit or similar product.

Paint wall however you want. Piece of cake!

A couple of nights and you'll have it made.

Yep...I will never put up wallpaper again either. It's just too much work when you want a change.

Look at the bright side Katy, at least it was only this one small room and not the entire house or you would have jumped off the roof by now. Yikes.

I second the methods above.

Deb