Paint a couple of coats of white primer over it.

Gray with a tan rug: SW Amazing Gray.

That is absolutely adorable! What a precious mural for a little boy's room ... it's almost a shame that they grow up and out of those types of things, but it's a fact of life I suppose! If that were on my wall, I wouldn't even bother to sand it. I'd just go over it with a coat of Kilz and then paint. BM paint has great coverage, and I think you'll be happy with the results.

Is this the color (Wolf Gray) that your boy has chosen?

If so, it looks pretty dark to me and I think I'd encourage him to stick with the gray idea but go up in shade a bit.

Lightly sand smooth first...just to flatten the paint completely...not to tear into the paper on the sheetrock. Then get a white primer paint and paint the entire wall so whatever color you do use is working off the same color background.

When I was a wild "hippie" teen, I painted a large rectangle of black enamel paint on my wall, added nails to the edge and did string art over it. With a little effort, we were able to fill the holes, sand the enamel down to give it some tooth and primer over it.

If he wants dark grey, I'd go for it. Just add lots of lighter accessories. Check out the pictures in butternut's super hero "black" boy's room.

http://ths.gardenweb.com/discussions/3402522/naval-blue-superhero-little-boys-room-almost-done?n=34

so sad to erase away their childhood! we always moved before they outgrew their cute nurseries/little kid rooms!

I would sand down the spots where it feels raised... the grey wolf looks like it's pretty dark so that I don't know if you even need to prime over the animals... good paint covers really nicely. I don't know the tones in his carpet, but I would imagine grey wolf might go with the tan carpet just fine...

Hi, thanks for all the reply's! Yes, auntjen, that is the color he choose. He originally wanted to paint his room black and "throw" splotches of gray paint on it! (And he thinks he isn't creative). I talked him down to gray; but he doesn't want a light gray. I tried to some lighter blue-gray's and give him a few select choices but apparently he knows how to use google too!

I like the Amazing gray - I will show it to him but he is kind of stuck on Wolf Gray.

I am not terribly worried about the carpet - we may be replacing all of the upstairs carpet next spring. I suppose if it looks bad I could throw down a area rug? Would that look weird?

I'm going to go ahead and sand lightly and then try primer and see if it covers it. I appreciate the help.

I too would sand lightly and prime. If it doesn't look good and assuming there is some kind of texture on your walls, I would buy a couple of cans of spray texture, practice outside with cardboard til you got the right look, cover your carpet well and lightly retexture that wall. Then prime again and no need to reframe and rerock that room. :)

I think the shade of grey is beautiful!

missymoo12 lol! Had to laugh!

I also love that gray.

Feather sand all raised edges. If you paint directly over it, the outline will telegraph through the primer and paint. Use 180 grit to cut the edge, then feather sand with 220 grit. Use 180 grit to sand the body of the mural.

We had to lose a mural too -- bought a house with a tea party mural - perfect for a house with a couple of girls, but we have two boys. We wound up wallpapering, so we did sand the wall. We had to remove texture more than paint.

Since you are planning on painting, and assuming the walls have some texture on them, I would paint on one coat of tinted primer and see if you can see ridges or brush strokes through the primer. If you do, you ony need to sand to break those down, not totally remove them, so they blend in with the wall's texture. If you have done a lot of sanding you will definitely want a second coat of primer. If not, you can decide whether you want a second coat of primer. If the wall has no texture at all, then I would give it a light sanding first, then prime.

If the grey goes with the blue in his room, I'd go with the one he likes. If you have a large open are of carpet, you can put a rug on top of it. If not, it will fade away visually -- it isn't going to be what he or likely anyone else is really looking at.

I would let him have the gray he chose. Within reason, I think that parents should let their kids express their style. I remember that my son at 12 wanted a dark blue room. I was concerned about the darkness and we talked about it. Ultimately, he decided that he wanted a rain storm kind of room. (!) So we painted it a dark blue gray, with big, fat rain drops coming out of the clouds. It was a fun project for us both and he kept it through high school.

Diane

My daughter's room was pink (and not a sweet pale pastel either!) which she eventually grew out of. We painted over twice with a light color, but that pink sort of radiated through. The last time we painted, we started with a tinted primer to match the planned blue-gray color which finally took care of the peek-a-boo issue.

We're currently working on a room for said daughter's children when they come to play. I love your mural, but I'm looking at the various removable vinyl wall decals to avoid the problem you're having. Maybe this?

I like that! Much easier to remove I am sure! Although I really enjoyed painting that mural. I remember working on it every night after work for a couple of weeks. Kind of sad it has to go, but they grow up quickly.

Well, I sanded and one coat of primer is on. The weird thing is that what really shows through is the elephant tusks! Not what I thought was going to happen. I will sand that area again after it dries all the way. Only faint show through on the rest so one more coat should do it. We will probably not paint the wolf gray untill Monday - I have the day off and dh will be out of the way at work!

Thanks everyone for your input - I was afraid it would be much harder than it was to cover up.

Take a picture and hang up a poster of this picture.

With respect to the decals, when we tried to remove ours, whole pieces of the drywall paper came off with it or sticky residue stayed on.