today's project -- need advice

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Yes that is the project for me today. My daughter's room has this hideous wallpaper that is gowing down today! She is so happy! Now my question for you is this... Since the walls are uneven, how should I proceed before painting? We bought the paint (yellow). What should I do to prepare the walls?

-- Jo (mamamia2kids@msn.com), November 12, 2001

Answers

Having taken off many layers of wallpaper over questionable surface walls, some paper layers over 100 years old too, I got to say you get a better looking solid surface finish if you re-glue the old paper back in place and paint two coats over top of it!

Never again will I waste hours and days stripping old paper off and having to re-do the dry wall, or worse, re-do board and batten, before I could paint, too expensive and time consuming too.

We have a 120 year old farmohouse, and the walls look better where I painted over the wallpaper rather than stripped the paper, honest!!!

Just reglue all loose and peeling sections and let dry, then paint.

-- Annie Miller in SE OH (annie@1st.net), November 12, 2001.


you could go over the walls with a belt sander. Expect alot of dust and it still won't look perfect. Flat paint will hide imperfections better than satin or semi-gloss. Texturing is something you could do. I've never used the roll on texture but I've sprayed a few walls and ceilings with a hopper. It's an added expense to rent the hopper and buy the mud which might not be worth it to you.

-- Dave (something@somewhere.com), November 12, 2001.

If you aren't super particular, you could just lightly sand the high spots, use spackling compound on the dips, then lighly sand those places, then paint the whole thing and hang posters over the places you don't like!!!! I have noticed my kids have so many horse pictures, shelves, etc... hanging on the walls you can't see them anyways!

-- Melissa (me@home.net), November 12, 2001.

If you have gone ahead and stripped your walls already there is a paper liner that you can put up that looks almost like beige shelf paper. Paste this on and then put on a primer and paint it. Another method is sponge painting with different colors. Light colors as the base and darker colors are sponged on. It gives it a look as if you meant to have the walls the way they are. Good luck. It is a job. I was remembering the other day when they used to wallpaper the ceilings and that was a job when that started falling down and had to be stripped and replaced. The house was 125 years old and all the wllpaper was hanging there from the first time someone ever thought of using wall paper. Jenn

-- jenn (normaj3@countrylife.net), November 12, 2001.

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