Use textured wallpaper to cover old wallpaper I cant remove?

16 years ago

I have a small bedroom, the former nursery, that I plan to turn into a library. It wonÂt be the English wood-paneled library of my fantasies, but IÂd like to get some of the same feeling. All in warm rusts, amber, or tobacco colors.

First off: the top half is wallpapered and has a border dividing that from the bottom half of the wall, which is painted. I had wanted to remove it all and paint. However, in other rooms of this house, removing the wallpaper has been a nightmare: the paste soaked through the porous builderÂs paint and into the drywall paper. I didnÂt expect this room to be any different. I/we donÂt have the energy to go through this again, and have several other rooms that need to be finished before extended family visits this summer from overseas. I thought of sanding off the seams and smoothing the wall with drywall compound, which I saw done on TV.

I had a friend over whose father had been a paperhanger. She helped me test the paper in a closet and sure enough, it only pulled off in tiny shreds.

She suggested, instead of trying to do drywall compound over the wallpaper and paint, to re-wallpaper using a textured paper that would hide any trace of underlying seams. None of the seams or corners are at all loose. All are very firmly glued down. I thought if I get a woven or leather texture that could work well for my library look.

Has anyone done this? How did it look?

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Comments (5)

groomingal
16 years ago
linnea- several years ago on one of the decorating show they created a leather look for an office. They used brown packaging paper and I think polyurethane. I want to say they tore sections of paper and dipped them in the poly- I know it sounds cheap but the end results turned out very nice. Maybe they have something on google to give an example?

I have done the drywall compound on a room before and everyone loved how it looked it took me a couple of days to put it on and it was just the top half of the wall.
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Karen_sl
16 years ago
Doing that this weekend. I have seen it done and it looks great.
We shall see, I too can't think about the amount of time it would take to get the darn paper off.
Karen L
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Christopher Nelson Wallcovering and Painting
16 years ago
If you MUST paper over the paper, be sure to prime with a wall covering primer first,after doing the steps you mentioned.

Here is a link that might be useful: primer
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linnea56 (zone 5b Chicago)
Original Author
16 years ago
Karen: which technique are you doing? Textured wallpaper over old wallpaper? Or one of the others? Rereading my post (after getting some sleep) it reads more like I am asking about texturing with drywall compound (like imitating venetian plaster, or a tuscan stucco look). PLEASE come back and tell me how it went!

I have seen the paper bag technique done on home improvement shows. ItÂs actually simpler. Dipping in poly would be very messy and sticky. You adhere the paper with latex glaze or acrylic matte medium. Then cover with the same clear liquid to seal it in before painting. My hesitation with doing that is if someday down the road you didnÂt want such a texture, you could NEVER get it off. The entire room would have to be skimcoated by someone with the skills to get it really flat and smooth. I donÂt think I want to go that route. At least with drywall compound texturing it could be sanded off smooth easily.
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jlj48
16 years ago
I have successfully used textured wallpaper over cheap paneling in a dining room in my former house. The textured wallpaper is inexpensive and the results were great! It covered the seams of the paneling and gave the room a whole new look. I painted it after hanging. I remember it hanging a little diffeently though. It is thicker, so you do not overlap the seams at all. You just butt them next to each other. I would get some help in hanging it. Lots of different patterns to choose from too. Good Luck.
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