Anyone ever painted over wallpaper?

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nikkiARNGwife

New member
So we're tackling home improvement stuffs we were going to tackle back when we moved in our house before DH got deployed and I got pregnant lol...We have a 2 story house built in 1991..the couple we purchased it from never had any children and NEVER used the upstairs rooms..I mean they literally look brand new except for the 1991 fixtures and wallpaper in the bathroom lol they're in perfect condition but they're UG-LY. So the wallpaper isn't textured, and is that ugly country blue and mauve that was popular back then. It's also glued down better than any wallpaper I've ever seen in my life...my cousin, who is really into home design looked at it and said it would be easier to just paint over it so we're going to try it...we're using a pretty dark brown - not poo poo brown or anything lol... thankfully that bathroom is the only room they wall-papered!

I guess I'm just wondering if you've done it did it turn out okay?
 
We've done it..and it turned out great. However, if it's flat wallpaper, and you're using a dark color, any bubbles and seams will be magnified. The option is to add some texture to the paint, which you can do with products from the DIY store.

You can try to sand the seams down a bit so they aren't so noticeable.
 
yeah my kitchen was the same country blue and mauve cause my house was built that year too, lol. it was a BUSY pattern too so it had to go.We just painted over it, 3 years ago and it still looks good. I still need to do the bathroom too, lol though cause it is still country blue and rose :P
 
I would use a good primer first- I prefer Kilz- it contains a lacquer (spelling?) that'll prevent any dyes or other wallpaper chemicals from seeping thru and showing thru the paint. Good luck!

(We've done this a million times! Our new house was all wallpaper when we moved in- we were able to remove the top layer in all of the rooms, but the bottom layers were impossible to remove so we had to paint over them.)
 
That would greatly offend my sensibilities. I just couldn't do it. :D

Almost every room in this house had wallpaper when we moved in. I'm down to 2 left, but I just can't take down anymore wallpaper, so the last room I did I hired someone. lol. I imagine I will for the last 2, also.

But ya, I've been taking down wallpaper for 5 years. Some of the more recent stuff came down pretty easily, some of the stuff that had been there since Christopher Columbus... not so much. There's been MUCH swearing.
 
We've done it too - and exactly like Darcy, we found it easy - and again the only hitch being that the less than perfect plaster work etc did become more obvious. There again, we were using a very pale paint colour to cover the paper, so may be with the deeper colour you're using, it will not be so much of an issue?
 
Sara - darker colors only exaggerate imperfections in the walls..they tend to throw shadows more, so you see the flaws better.
 
okay...all good to know..thanks!

i've been over the walls pretty closely and whoever did the wall-papering did a really fantastic job lol..too bad it's with butt ugly paper :)..but I can hardly even see the seams at all...so we'll see what it looks like after we prime it and get a coat on. DH is going to add crown molding around the top which will hopefully hide any problems we have with the top seam. Honestly, it's the kids' bathroom, so if it doesn't turn out perfect I'm not going to be too upset..as long as the pink/blue is gone. No one else will really see it but us kwim?
 
Hey Nikki....word of caution. One time, my MIL was trying to be "helpful". She knew that I wanted to take the wallpaper down from my dining room and paint it a tuscan yellow. Well, she was staying with us after the birth of my son to help take care of me and my son (I has a bad pregnancy & delivery).....and she decided one day, while I was sleeping, to paint over the wallpaper for me. She did the priming and painting. Anyway, it looked horrible. You could see that the wall had wallpaper that was painted over...and that was not the look I was going for. Anyway, overnight, the wallpaper started to come off the wall. The primer and paint acted as a solvent that removed the tackiness of the wallpaper glue. So, my husband, in a fit of rage, ripped it all down, washed the walls, primed them and then painted them. In the end, the walls looked great, but that was because we got rid of the wallpaper. Just thought I would let you know my experience with it. I personally don't like the look of painted over wallpaper....but that is just me.

Susan
 
I'm glad you asked this Nikki! We have wallpaper in our dining room and I HATE it! I would really like to either paint over it (which my husband is against) or try to take it down. So everyone's info has been a huge help for me too. THANKS!! :)

Susan~thank sounds like a nightmare! I can imagine awful that had to be with all the wallpaper coming off! YIKES!! Glad it worked out in the end though.
 
We live in a rental so it's not an issue, but when DH's parents bought their new home, there was a ton of wall paper in every room. There were layers upon layers, it was a horrible mess. We used a commercial steamer, and it did a great job on it, because it melted the glue, and we just scraped it off. I would never paint over wall paper, but that's just me. I'd rather frustrate myself to no end trying to get it off LOL
 
As the daughter of a professional painter, I would say "don't do it", lol. I know lots of people do, but it just makes such a mess of things if you want to remove it. If it starts lifting (which wallpaper will over time), your walls will look weird.
 
My house was built in 1960... for our builder, wallpaper was standard, paint was an upgrade -- which means EVERY surface in the house, including ceilings, was papered. The previous owners painted over the wallpaper in most cases. It looked awful by the time we got to it (though I'm not sure how long ago it had been painted.) I second the suggestion to use a professional steamer. If the paper was hung in 1991, it will probably almost fall off the walls for you. (It helped us to use a handy little scoring tool we found at Home Depot to help the steam get through.)

Good luck whichever way you go!
 
our painter did it for us at our old house (gotta love PINK wallpaper in a dining room, right?! :D). it turned out great! you seriously couldn't even tell there was wallpaper underneath... trust me, dh is super picky about stuff like that and would've had a fit if it looked bad. :p it just looked like a normal wall. no seams or anything funky. i'm sure it depends on how 'tight' the wallpaper is on there to begin with though.

however, i have no tips on how to make it look good since i had no involvement in the process, lol.
 
I swear the wallpaper in our house was applied with superglue! We have almost all of it off now but it's been a very painful and frustrating process (after having several professional painters tell us that they can't get it off, we've done most of it ourselves). Still, I don't think I would paint over it - I'm a "do it right the first time" kinda person.
 
first you would have to know what kind of wallpaper it is and how it was put up. if it was a professional job and they glued the entire thing then it would be fine. otherwise. do not do it. it will fall and bubble. we did paint over a wall papered room but we hired someone. the wallpaper would not come down (it was professionally installed). the contractors had to sand the entire thing, fill the creases, sand again, texture (twice) and then paint. it as a holy mess.
 
Karen, your CEILINGS were wallpapered? What the hell???

I've never painted over it Nikki, but if it's on there that tight, I would think it would be okay.
 
I'm pretty picky about stuff like that and I personally wouldn't do it. Our house was built in 1988 and there was ugly textured wallpaper in the bathroom and the kitchen/dining room area that I had to pull down. It came down pretty easy by scoring it and then repeatedly spraying it with wallpaper removal spray until the adhesive started breaking up and then it came down and I just had to scrape the lower layer off. If it's really on there good I'd just rent a steamer, you can rent one pretty inexpensively at most wallpaper stores.
 
I'll have to post pics once we're totally finished with everything, but DH painted it yesterday and it really turned out great! You can't even tell there is wallpaper beneath it and there (so far lol) are no bubbles or even places where you can see the seams. We went with a lighter color that I had originally wanted, but it looks a million times better than that ugly pink and blue stuff lol.
 
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