Help with wallpaper/paint/paintable wallpaper!?
My house is really old, and the previous owners were a little dumb when it came to decorating. My bedroom has hideous wallpaper on it, but there is even older stuff underneath it. Another issue is the fact that underneath all the wallpaper, we don’t think the drywall is in good condition. I have a budget of 0 ABSOLUTE MAX, (I had originally wanted to paint, but then my parents clued me in on the condition). Does anyone know of any rediculously cheap paintable wallpaper (that then I could paint over with? I figured that I could paint the room for around )
Please help me! my room right now is a HIDEOUS salmon pink with blue (yes blue) ribbons.
Btw: the square footage of the walls, minus the doors, windows etc. is 319.
THANKS!
Thee is no way that you are going to paper and paint for less than $120.00. I suggest you paint over the wallpaper. I would never do this but with your budget, you have little choice. I would recommend ragging the walls. This is how you do it. You can either go with a light base coat and then rag 2 darker colors on it or a dark base with 2 light shades on it. Last year I did our living room and dining room ragging the walls. I painted the base coat kind of a terracotta color and then I used 1 shade lighter and then 2 shades lighter ragging. You also mix a glace in with the ragging colors which gives the paint kind of a translucent look. It came out so nice. Looks just like wallpaper and only cost us about $100.00. Go to a paint store or Lowes or Home Depot and ask them about ragging. They can set you up with all the right stuff.
They do make a paintable wall paper. I bought mine at Home Depot and it comes in different patterns. It is quite reasonable too. You can even get one that looks like textured walls. It is meant to be painted with any latex. I have it in my bedroom and hallway and just love it.
Your best option is to paint right over the wallpaper. Be sure to use primer. To get the best result, tho, you need to determine what kind of paper you have. If it’s vinyl coated, you can use any primer but if it’s plain paper, be sure to use an oil based primer. If you use latex on plain paper, the paper will absorb the water from the primer and cause ugly bubbling. Before you prime, fill all of the seams with joint compound. Sand the areas smooth…feather out any edges, wipe down and then apply your primer. By filling in the seams the end result will look less like painted wallpaper. The walls you describe are probably lathe and horse-hair plaster (have ‘em in my old house). They’ll never be perfectly smooth like new drywall so use a very low gloss paint. The flatter the paint finish the less any imperfections in the walls show.
In the future, if you choose to refinish the walls, the easiest thing would be to just apply new drywall right over the existing stuff. They have thinner drywall for just this purpose. 99% less messy than tearing down old plaster. I just had it done in my hallway and it looks awesome!
Good luck – old houses ROCK!
Found some paintable wallpaper at http://www.designyourwall.com, but I don’t think you can do it for under your budget.