Decorating - specifically stripping wallpaper

[KatyCooks]

Don't you just love it when you start stripping thick (Anaglypta) wallpaper off the walls of your house and find unexpected surprises!

I think the previous owners had a leak or flooded the bath in the bathroom and did a spectacularly bad job of repairing the damage. Here is what I found today as I stripped the wallpaper at the top of the stairs.

 

[GinnyPNW]

Remodeling projects are always a bit scary! Hope you can fix this without much effort or cost!

 

[KatyCooks]

Thanks Ginny! Once I pull off all the loose plaster and the "rubble" behind it, I am hoping it will just be a case of filling with some cement and plastering over the top. There will be a lot of work to do before I can paint - there are so many cracks and holes behind this wallpaper!

 

[GinnyPNW]

Here in the PNW -- not so much in California, at least not when we lived there -- it is very popular to do a "textured" coating on the walls. Do they do that in Europe, do you know? Here, there are levels of it. I don't like the real extreme ones. We have what I think they call "Orange Peel"...'cuz it kind of resembles that.

For little jobs, one can buy a can of the stuff. The professionals (painters), of course, use something other than a can. I'm not sure exactly what, because whenever we've had repairs done, they always close off the doors to confine the mess?

Hey, if they don't do it in your area, maybe you can be a trend setter!? I mention it as it may be something better/easier than trying to make all the walls look perfect again? Or, consider doing wall paper again. There's an underlayment that one can put up first that takes care of all the imperfections. EDIT: Well, not the huge imperfections...

 

[GinnyPNW]

Oooo...one other thought: Wainscoting! Since it in the lower portion of the wall...that could be very stylish?

 

[GinnyPNW]

In my dining room (and a couple of other places) we have a white wainscot that allowed us to be a little bolder, if you will, with the paint in that room. All dark wouldn't work, but with that white, I think it works. The closeup is the texture of the wall.

 

[KatyCooks]

I really just want a plain painted surface. So I will just have to do the prep work and it will take as long as it takes I guess. Luckily, upstairs there are only small bits of wall and they seem to be in decent shape, so I can paint those quite quickly so that I get a sense of progress being made!

 

[GinnyPNW]

Good deal & makes sense. Just pace yourself and before you know, poof! Beautiful again!

 

[KatyCooks]

In my dining room (and a couple of other places) we have a white wainscot that allowed us to be a little bolder, if you will, with the paint in that room. All dark wouldn't work, but with that white, I think it works. The closeup is the texture of the wall.

View attachment 65695View attachment 65696

Beautiful by the way Ginny!

 

[Rascal]

Do you know how to plaster?. When building my upstairs addition I did dry wall / gib work myself. Then plastered the joints.

Russ

 

[dragnlaw]

Nice Ginny, love it, my styling! But thought to mention, any textured plastering cannot take any repairs really because the difference in colour due to age will show. The whole area would need to be repainted and in a few cases, replastered.

I rather agree with you Katy, just replaster and paint.

(I had put in an entirely different post, right after Katy's first post - and just now found it "unposted" - typical dragn!)