Here's How to Paint over Ugly Wallpaper
Sam Lutz • January 6, 2015
Removing wallpaper is a pain, especially in older houses. At times, removing wallpaper can even damage the walls. Many homeowners go through hours of painstaking, laborious work to remove old wallpaper, and that's not always necessary. If your home is papered with old, unattractive wallpaper and you'd rather have painted walls, follow these tips to paint over your wallpaper.
How To Paint Over Your Unattractive Wallpaper
- Check the wallpaper for damage or areas where the paper no longer adheres to the wall.
- Reattach any areas where the wallpaper is coming unattached to the wall. Look along seams for sections that may be peeling. For this project to be successful, the wallpaper must be firmly attached to the wall in all locations. Holes and other areas of damage should not be painted over.
- Clean the walls with a dry rag. Remove dust, dirt and spider webs. Concentrate your cleaning efforts on those parts of the wall that were likely cleaned the least over the years, namely the edges near the ceiling and upper corners.
- Run a thin layer of caulk over the seams of the wallpaper to prevent the wallpaper from peeling in the future.
- Apply spackling over heavily textured areas and seams. Wait for the spackling to dry, then sand down the spackling to ensure that these textures will not appear through the paint.
- Prepare the area for painting as you normally would. Remove furniture from the room, and cover the floor with tarp to protect it. Remove all outlet covers from the walls. Use painter's tape to protect any parts that should not be painted and that cannot be removed.
- Apply a layer of primer over the wallpaper. Use a primer designed to cover stains and dark colors to hide any remaining evidence of the wallpaper. Note that water-based primer may affect the adhesive holding the paper to the wall. To avoid this problem, use oil-based primer. When applying primer to the wall, start at the top of the wall and work downward.
- Wait for the primer to dry for the amount of time specified by the primer's manufacturer.
- Apply paint over the primer using the same methods you used to apply the primer. Wait for the paint to dry for the length of time specified by the paint manufacturer.
- Apply a second coat of paint.
Heavily textured wallpaper will appear beneath the paint, even if parts of it are covered in spackling. In this case, removing the paper is the best thing to do.
Resources
For additional information on this subject, check out these reputable resources:
If you plan to paint over your old wallpaper soon, stop in at Ace Paint and Unfinished Furniture
for advice and all the necessary tools. We're here to help you get the job done right.
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