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[noapologies]

I just did something similar in my kitchen but I pulled the wallpaper but painted over the glue/backing by putting 2 coats of oil based Kilz and then sanded to smooth down those glue spots and then 2 coats of paint worked great! The trick is to use the right kilz, there are several types but if you paint over wallpaper or backing you have to use the oil based kind in the brown jug. Good Luck!

[nomar]

Our kitchen had very PINK paper on the lower half of the wainscotting when we moved in. The upper part was a very neutral beige. I could live with the top. After looking at and hating that pink for years, I painted it when I retired. The paper was stuck on very tightly, so I went at it with a very dark rich green. That has been several years ago and you would never know paper was under it. I am happy now with my richer looking colors in the kitchen instead of a very girly look. Just not my style.

[fab50]

Hi,

I just painted over wallpaper in both my living room and dining room. I had put the paper up 20 years ago. I went to Lowes and got a Valspar product that is a sealer, so the paper color/pattern does not bleed through. Then, I put two coats of high quality primer over the sealer, and then the paint. My walls are beautiful! The sealer made the difference. Also, I was told that if the wallpaper was peeling or loose in anyway, that I needed to scrape. But I had prepped the walls correctly and used good quality wallpaper, which still looked new.

Years ago I scraped old wallpaper. My advice is to wet the walls down with a sponge and fabric softener added to the hot water; then wait about ten minutes before scraping. Comes off easily!

[kittymomNC]

I had put a pretty wallpaper under a chair rail years ago that had a textured pattern on it. It was also on another small area. When I wanted to redecorate, I thought about taking it down but realized I really did a good job putting it up! I took it down from the somewhat separate small area and it was such a job, I thought since there are textured wallpapers available specifically made for painting, why not try it?

I have no great advice on sealers or Kilz or anything -- I just decided to try a plain old interior satin finish paint and if it didn't work, I could still take it down. After painting two coats, it looked terrific and people were always complimenting me on it! It's been a number of years, and it still looks great. So if you try and you don't like it, then you can take it down. It doesn't make it any harder.

[brewhaha]

You might save money in the short term but it'll cost you more in the long run.

[GCR18]

On 4/8/2014 Kitlynn said:

Yes you can do it and it will come out just fine and look beautiful if you do it right. We had our kitchen done last Summer. You have to make sure that the seams in the wallpaper are not coming loose anywhere. Then paint with a really good primer first and then your paint color of choice on top. Our contractor did ours and it looks gorgeous!

My ex-BIL is a painting contractor. He painted my mother's bedroom, it had 3 layers of wallpaper. My father liked his wallpaper. Prep is the key. No loose seams and a primer.

[calexand]

Have painted over wallpaper and it turned out very well. Yes, it first was sealed with a quality shellac based primer and then all the seams were covered with a skim coat of compound, sanded, primed again and then painted. It was necessary to go back over areas where the paint seeped under at the seems and bubbled. Was is worth it especially with the extra work, I would say yes, as the alternative of removing the paper from a hall with 18ft ceilings was over whelming. I hired a professional to do the skim coat as it needs to be done well but I know that the cost quoted Removal VS Painting was twice as much. We have since sold the house and absolutely no one could tell we painted over the wallpaper the finished product was done so well.

[aubnwa01]

In my previous home, the owner before the lady I bought from was wallpaper happy & just about every room was papered. She had removed a lot of it by the time I bought it, but there were still a few rooms with paper. One of the bedrooms was still papered & I worked trying to get that paper off with little success. I asked a contractor to take care of it when I was having some other work done & his crew sprayed primer on the paper & then wall texture & then painted it the same color as the rest of the interior walls & you'd never know there was wall paper under there.

[Mistreatedbycs]

I would google and found your answer in e-how. You can do this but you need the correct preparation and correct primer. I think the most important part is wash the wall, seal the edges and prime with an oil base product.

I'm not sure if I would bother, sounds like removing the paper and preparing the wall for painting is the best way to go but either way, this is a lot of work. I'll be doing the same thing in the next month but fortunately I only have one wall of paper to remove.

[morning glory]

My mom painted over wallpaper in her living room and bedroom and when she went to a nursing home we kept her house and we heated it in the winter but the paper started coming loose on the ceilings and would hang down in strips as it came loose. I had to have new wall board put over the ceilings because the wallpaper could not be taken off to look good again. It looked so bad. After that experience I would never advise anyone to paint over wallpaper.