Yep Deb, I've inherited my share of those horrors too. Someone who'd owned M's house did FC loooong before it hit the big time. I was scraping off 3 layers of paper and discovered large, 'ole honkin' roosters lol.

Maybe you might consider using one of the new matte finishes that are out. Wonder how the sheen is compared to eggshell. Ever used one of them? Less sheen, less defects.

Does K do any wet sponge sanding Deb? That's how M has always done it...I'd never seen that technique before I met him. He just finished mudding the backsplash this morning where he'd put up the planks...and then tore them off per my request...sigh.

And I'm DONE painting.

That's a mess...what IS that streak running vertically Deb?

OMG I know!!!!!! I had no idea that there was wallpaper under any portion of wall in our house until this past Spring (9yrs later) when I painted the upstairs hall (one of the very few areas in our home tha I haven't painted in escess of a billion times) and I guess the moisture or something from this final coat of paint made the wallpaper seam underneath split wide open. I am so angry!!!!!!!

Yup, same here. Walls, closets, and ceilings. Wallpaper, then layers of paint, then texture. I gave up on perfection long time ago. The closets will forever stay as they are ... with the occasional fresh coat of paint.

I think there should be a special place is decorating he** for people who paint over paper!!

Jan if you mean in the 3rd pic, that was/is a crack that someone repaired badly, long ago - barely visible with the faux - shadows blend in with the movement of the paint. With the PW test it jumped out. The 2nd pic is where he dug out one of the badly rounded corners. Our LR is matte paint - love it - will probably use it again. Keith always sponge blends the edges to fade from old to new, but there's still sanding to be done, can't get away from it totally. Did I mention I did that faux in oil? Young, stupid, lots of dead brain cells, too.

ttodd that's the thing - it can look ok for a while but at some point, something's gonna give - and it's NEVER for the owner who committed the sin!

Natal we have to think of it as character, not lack of perfection - it's all in the spin ;-)

Goodness gracious, great balls of thankfulness that is you and not me. I read the title of your post and thought "What was she thinking when she painted over wallpaper?!" I am glad to see that it wasn't you. So sorry you have to deal with the mess.

BTW, thanks for posting pics of that handsome hubby of yours. Darn he is good looking. Just keep him in the room and maybe no one will notice that walls. (Make sure he is wearing the shorts.)

Yeah, kk - like I was going to give instructions on HOW to paint over wallpaper - NOT! That man wears shorts year 'round. His temperature cut off point to put on pants is 0. He shovels the driveway in shorts, walks the dog in shorts, goes to work in shorts..... honest. I put my foot down though when he wants to go out to dinner in January in shorts - not with this wife.

Well if I had legs like his I would wear shorts more often, too.

I so feel your pain! When we bought our house in 1980 we knew it had wallpaper on the walls and ceilings of all the rooms. And paint. We were lucky it was only one layer of paper, but about 80 years of paint. Good thing we were young and foolish we spent an entire Memorial day weekend with two wallpaper steamers and stripped the wallpaper in living room and dining room. and it stayed unpainted for a long time! LOL

lol, Kelly beat me to it ... I think you just like to take pictures of DH and his muscles ; )

shhhh..... squirrel the real reason is I tell him about the comments - then he works harder - tee hee!!! I'm so mean! (and men are SO easy)

lol, you are so bad!

Deb, tell him I saved the pictures of him painting the house in my inspiration folder. I am adding these now.

Does he have a brother?

I'm with you on never painting over wallpaper...and I curse the previous owners of our homes for painting brick and painting original, early 1900s woodwork. I've stripped it all...brick is the worst and yes it can be done! But having a nice pair of legs to look at sure makes jobs like this easier!!!

There is a brother but trust me - you don't want him ;-)

wow...is that plaster and old lathe I see?

I had a lot of "fun" with layers and layers of painted wallpaper in a 1907 home that I owned. Years later, I still have an owly elbow from stripping the kitchen.

I thought that my bedroom was painted-over paper because I could see the overlapping seams. (Overlapping seams aren't uncommon in really old installations of wallpaper.) When I finally scraped through all of the paint, I found something that's rather like brown craft paper as the first layer over the finish coat of plaster. Under that was the date and the name and address of the paper hanger. What I learned from further research was that in some instances, the plaster wall was papered like this in preparation for paint. Weird, huh?

museblues - yes,lathe and plaster. They didn't have drywall in 1926. We always thought our house was built in 1936 but just found a really old real estate listing that said '26, but either way, plaster was it.

kk - Keith says you need to return the favor - he wants YOUR picture. Says he might need to get in touch with you if I ever get tired of him ;-)

yogacat although that's a pin (literally) how cool that you found the name of the of the plasterer! Everytime we've done big remodeling my DH staples his business card (Residential Engineering) inside a wall somewhere. Someday, maybe someone will find it.

Poor thing.

Yep, back in the early 70s I spent a very long time scraping flowered wallpaper off of every room in an old home in Madison, Wi. It was the first place I actually owned.

Funny thing was that when it was finally done, my mother papered the dining room in a pretty Waverly print.

Wallpaper? What wallpaper....I didn't see wallpaper in those pics... ;-)

Good luck with the removing the wallpaper thing.

I remember this fella's ARM muscles from a previous post. Wasn't he hanging some sort of light fixture? I don't remember the post subject, only his arms:)

dlm2000, i just showed your post to my dear :) as he mentioned painting over the current paper... lol...

i got a resounding "humph!" lol lol

(but he is going to help out the future FUTURE owners...and there will be no painting over paper here)! LOL

I agree there should be a very hot place for people who do this. My house is only 1990, but typical for this area was the builder provided wallpaper in the kitchen & bathrooms. They adhered the paper directly to the unprepped drywall. In the rest of the house is an orange peel texture.

So if you strip, you're left with a horrible mess of ripped drywall. Most people around here (Plano, TX) hire people to do a joint compound texture right over the wallpaper. Ours is so thick it resembles whipped frosting. It's terrible. I've got this lovely (NOT!) texture in my kitchen, powder and DD's bathroom. Thank goodness they left the master bath & hall bath alone. I guess those wallpaper choices were less heinous.

A lucky thing I found though, when I'm able to find an edge beneath the texture, I can strip up whole pieces of wallpaper off, texture and all. I think the JC may have loosened the bond of the wallpaper paste. So far I've only worked on one small section. I hope I continue to have this theory hold up.

Good luck with your walls.

Kathe

"I put my foot down though when he wants to go out to dinner in January in shorts - not with this wife." So my guess is his "other wife" allows him to wear the shorts out to dinner in January? LOL ;)

You know painting over wallpaper is something I never gave a thought to. Sure it could "seem" easier to some people wanting paint instead of the wallpaper that was currently there, but adding moisture over a waterbased paste, to anyone with any sense at all, would realize it would only cause said paste to loosen. But then how ever said most people were that smart, huh?

And yes, your hubby has great legs. And arms. I have one of those at home too. And you are correct. Sharing photos and all the comments received is the best way to get more work out of them. They are very easy. Funny, I never would have though while I was in high school that marrying a Jock would be a good thing. But as it turns out, it was a very good idea. Good thing I didn't know him when he was in highschool. I'd have stayed clear for sure. Though I know your guy is also a brain, as is mine. Lucky us.

Yeah, right. Like you are going to tire of him. NOT!

If you do I am going to smack you upside the head for being so silly.

GRRRRRRRR! I watched a bit of "Designed To Sell" on HGTV today... I wasn't crazy about this show to begin with, but today they painted over wallpaper in a bathroom. I was screaming at the tube the whole time, "NNNOOOOOooooo!"

kathec said: They adhered the paper directly to the unprepped drywall

I live in the next burb over from you and I feel your pain. Luckily, I didn't have to deal with plaster, yuck! One kitchen and one bathroom down, one bathroom to go. Good luck with yours.

What a mess to leave for the "next guy". It reminds me of the old farmhouse my parents owned as a second (vacation?) home. It had 4 layers of wallpaper in the DR, which I clearly remember scraping off with my mom. She was doing a bit of swearing, which was quite unlike her. Plenty of vinegar and hot water was her solution (pun intended).

That was back in the 60's. Not sure if steamers were available then. The walls were horsehair plaster, yuck!

Think of how nice it will look when you're done (not much concilation now, is it?)

greenthumbfish - you live the next burb over from ME? Spill!

bonnieann it's getting there oh....so....slowly and it's never going to be perfect but it's going to be a whole lot better.

Hey dlm, I live in Firewheel, near the mall *waving*

Maybe I wasn't clear - I live in the next burb over from kathec, LOL! Or do you live near North Dallas, dlm?

Ohhhhhhhh - now I get it! No, not in TX - close, though..... suburban Chicago ;-)

Well that was a long-distance wave, LOL! Just thinking about Chicago makes me shiver ;-) Your highs are our lows right now - it was in the mid 70s here today!

There is actually wallpaper made to be painted,which I have. In some old houses the walls are not in good shape and textured paper can help.

I do however send my condolences to anyone who has to deal will stripping multiple layers of old paper, it is quite a job.