It can be done, but it is rarely done well. In this house, most of the paper peeled off in long sheets, but the house before this one, we tried every trick in the book and that stuff was not coming off without taking some of the drywall with it. We sought more advise and here's what we wound up doing: We checked for any loose corners or seams that needed to be secured and floated the seams with drywall compound -- just a little bit needed to make seams not show through) and then painted over everything with the shellac based KILZ. The shellac is better at penetrating the paper and adhering it to the drywall for good. You then treat the wall as if it were new drywall. You can texture it, but if you have a good smooth wall now, you might just want to take some of that drywall compound and address any imperfections you see through and then paint the smooth wall. A smooth wall is actually a higher end finish -- most walls are textured to reduce cost in the finishing. If the paper is not bonded to the wall or if it has any loose areas, you are setting yourself up for a nightmare. Once you go over paper with paint, it will be harder, if not impossible, to get the paper off. The first layer of paint might be okay, but the next color or the one after that or any extra moisture in the room could be enough to loosen the paper and more layers of paint mean more weight to pull away from the wall. Once it starts to fail, you may be pulling off all the drywall and trim and starting over. There is a reason people curse those who so quickly paint over paper. Proper preparation of the walls is the labor intensive part no matter which way you go - if done right. If not done right, the labor and materials are even more the next go around.

Well, I'm not sure there's wallpaper underneath, but I can see vertical lines under the wall texture, which is suggestive. But after I asked my initial question, the prior owner told us that he had the walls retextured without incident at some point, which makes me more optimistic that maybe we can skim coat it. The one thing that worries me is that we had some cracked plaster repaired in one 2nd floor room, which did not have anything on the walls but did have a textured ceiling that we had skim coated. About 30 minutes after the skim coat went up, huge chunks started coming down as the skim coat soaked through the ceiling wallpaper that we didn't know was under there. I'd really prefer not to have that happen again.

I would do black trim. What would be the point of white? It would stick out like a sore thumb against the black and negate the whole disappearing walls effect. And for those who advocate neutral walls, black is pretty neutral. :) ETA: Don't forget that your floors are light and will provide contrast. If you add contrast on the walls as well, it might make the wallpaper stand out in a way you don't want. Here are some pictures I found of both. It may help you decide which effect you prefer. Dark grasscloth walls, white trim above and below: Trim the same colour as walls(notice the dark floor as well): No trim, dark floor, white ceiling. I find the grasscloth wall disappears into the floor. Dark grasscloth and dark trim, dark floor:

String yarn/wall yarn? I have no idea, and the internet was not very helpful. The walls do feel like they have ornamental string on them, all the strands tightly packed together. I see this description also fits the definition of “grass cloth.” I’m not closing on the house for another two weeks, so I can’t get better pictures right now. I don’t believe it’s painted, no, cat_ky. I quite appreciate the painting description Cavimum. This might become a bigger project than I should attempt before move-in....we will be painting a few other parts of the house, so I thought it might be good to try now. But something I just read about grass cloth gives me pause....will cats really scratch on it? We have three cats. I’ve never seen them use a large horizontal surface....they instead choose things like the backs of chairs and certain rough hemp-like carpets. Anyone know? (Perhaps I should post someone lace else for this question. I’m new to posting. ) Thank you everyone!