I have now painted on wallpaper in four rooms and would like to share my experience. Since I have not painted on wallpaper before and I want a good result, I started looking for tips online, reading various brochures from paint stores, and asking colleagues at work. Regarding how to treat the seam, I found four alternatives, but all have disadvantages. In the end, I experimented with my own method and am very satisfied with the result. Below is a description of different alternatives with my comments as well as my own method.
Method 1: leave the seam as is, paint directly on the wallpaper, and the seams remain visible afterward.
Comment: Not for me, as I want painted walls to look even and smooth.
Method 2: glue a renovation wallpaper over the existing wallpaper, for example, Easy Cover, and then paint on the renovation wallpaper.
A colleague said he got very good results with this method. But the method is expensive, and I never tried it. Partly because the renovation wallpaper itself is expensive to acquire. Partly because it requires a lot of paint. My colleague said it absorbs paint, and he had to use buckets of paint.
Method 3: paint the entire wallpaper, including the seam, with a primer and then putty the seam on the primer, sand it even, and then paint with wall paint.
Experience: It required a lot of putty, a lot of sanding, and created a lot of dust at home during sanding. I never got the smooth wall I wanted. When I think about it, I wonder if it's possible to putty away the seam that bulges outward? Leveling a crack with putty is a trifle. But leveling something that bulges out?
Method 4: sand down the seam with sandpaper and then paint on the even surface.
Experience: The seam was clearly visible after painting, even though the surface felt very even and smooth before painting, probably because the sanded wallpaper and the unsanded wallpaper absorb paint differently, and the seam becomes apparent after painting. I had to rescue the result with puttying and sanding as in Method 3.
My own method: cut away the seam before painting with primer, putty, and sand, then paint with wall paint.
Method description: I use a sharp utility knife and a long ruler and cut a straight line along the entire seam so that the overlapping strip of wallpaper is separated from the rest of the wallpaper. Using the knife, I peel away the strip of overlapping wallpaper from the underlying wallpaper. Then I paint the wallpaper with a primer. After that, I putty the small groove left after removing the seam. Since the groove is so narrow (from a fraction of a mm to a few mm) and shallow, very little putty is required to level it out. There is minimal sanding and dust. After sanding, the wall is painted with wall paint.
Tip 1: Usually it's clear how wide the seam is and where to place the cut. But it's no problem if you make the cut wrong. If you notice that you haven't cut away the entire seam, just make a new cut. If you cut away too much wallpaper, the groove will still be leveled out with putty.
Tip 2: Paint with primer first and then putty on the primer. Otherwise, if you putty directly on the wallpaper, the groove will be visible after painting.
Tip 3: It takes a moment to peel off the overlapping wallpaper. For me, it took about 10 minutes for each seam.
I attach two pictures. One shows the groove after removing the seam, before priming. The other shows how it looks after priming, puttying, and sanding.
Method 1: leave the seam as is, paint directly on the wallpaper, and the seams remain visible afterward.
Comment: Not for me, as I want painted walls to look even and smooth.
Method 2: glue a renovation wallpaper over the existing wallpaper, for example, Easy Cover, and then paint on the renovation wallpaper.
A colleague said he got very good results with this method. But the method is expensive, and I never tried it. Partly because the renovation wallpaper itself is expensive to acquire. Partly because it requires a lot of paint. My colleague said it absorbs paint, and he had to use buckets of paint.
Method 3: paint the entire wallpaper, including the seam, with a primer and then putty the seam on the primer, sand it even, and then paint with wall paint.
Experience: It required a lot of putty, a lot of sanding, and created a lot of dust at home during sanding. I never got the smooth wall I wanted. When I think about it, I wonder if it's possible to putty away the seam that bulges outward? Leveling a crack with putty is a trifle. But leveling something that bulges out?
Method 4: sand down the seam with sandpaper and then paint on the even surface.
Experience: The seam was clearly visible after painting, even though the surface felt very even and smooth before painting, probably because the sanded wallpaper and the unsanded wallpaper absorb paint differently, and the seam becomes apparent after painting. I had to rescue the result with puttying and sanding as in Method 3.
My own method: cut away the seam before painting with primer, putty, and sand, then paint with wall paint.
Method description: I use a sharp utility knife and a long ruler and cut a straight line along the entire seam so that the overlapping strip of wallpaper is separated from the rest of the wallpaper. Using the knife, I peel away the strip of overlapping wallpaper from the underlying wallpaper. Then I paint the wallpaper with a primer. After that, I putty the small groove left after removing the seam. Since the groove is so narrow (from a fraction of a mm to a few mm) and shallow, very little putty is required to level it out. There is minimal sanding and dust. After sanding, the wall is painted with wall paint.
Tip 1: Usually it's clear how wide the seam is and where to place the cut. But it's no problem if you make the cut wrong. If you notice that you haven't cut away the entire seam, just make a new cut. If you cut away too much wallpaper, the groove will still be leveled out with putty.
Tip 2: Paint with primer first and then putty on the primer. Otherwise, if you putty directly on the wallpaper, the groove will be visible after painting.
Tip 3: It takes a moment to peel off the overlapping wallpaper. For me, it took about 10 minutes for each seam.
I attach two pictures. One shows the groove after removing the seam, before priming. The other shows how it looks after priming, puttying, and sanding.
You can skip the primer. Just go ahead with the finish paint directly.M MoNa1379 said:
- If it turns out well, you're done
- If it doesn't turn out well, you've already "primed" and can do another coat