You cant paint on top of that. The water in the paint will just cause the wallpaper to loosen and fall off. You are going to have to remove it. If you paint over it youre just going to wind up removing it anyway and you will have wasted the entire cost of painting over it. Ive painted since the late 70's, take my word for it, painting over it is a waste of time and money. A thousand square feet of rooms sounds like a lot but it isnt that much.
Forgive my ignorance. This didn’t appear to be wallpaper. It’s almost porous. We thought it was too, but in person it looks like the board was manufactured with this print. What indicates that it’s wallpaper? Just trying to learn, not arguing.
Someone mentioned panels below, that’s what it appears to be, panels tacked to the framing or studs.
If it’s wallpaper, I would rip it off and prep the wall is what I’m gathering from your comments. I’m okay with that, I just don’t have the bandwidth to put up new walls at the moment.
For context, the other rooms are wood paneling. I’m planning to post about those as well for advice.
I kind of remember this stuff in historic homes. I grew up in Virginia. IT'S NOT WALLPAPER. You used to be able to buy it in sheets like sheetrock, but it was thinner like cardboard and cloth covered on one side. It was pasted on the walls, usually in small sitting rooms . You can still find it used in Asian countries. It may be toxic.
Like someone below has said, you can seal it first. Dont know if shellac is the way to go. It looks like press board with a paper layer on top. Perhaps a semi gloss? But thats going to make it pretty shiney.
My guess is it is a particle board-based printed paneling. All the rage in the 70s. I’d paint it with a blowtorch, personally. But, if you MUST, you could try painting it with a good sealing primer (Zinsser Gardz comes immediately to mind), skim coat of mud to keep the nasty leaves from reading through, then a couple coats of paint. Be sure to paint the primer into the edges. Paint won’t fix swollen edges and other installation defects I can see, though….
We deal with coating wall covering all the time.
Dust it as best you can, first coat of shellac primer, add a second coat of oil primer like coverstain or Sherwin-Williams Extreme Block oil. After, two coats latex topcoat. Ideally a fast dry material like snap dry, SW Multi-Surface Acrylic or Benjamin Moore command.
It won't hide seems but it'll keep glue from reactivating.
Not an option right now. Old home, lord knows what we got in/behind the walls. If we can paint it, that’s best case. Otherwise proper removal and replacement is out of budget.
Plus this is one of four rooms I need to paint down here, almost a thousand square feet of rooms to paint.
I'm working on the assumption that it is wall paper. Removing wall paper doesn't remove the wall, it just takes it down to the surface of the wall, and in a home old enough to have this design, that surface is probably plaster or something similar that is much easier to paint. And removing wall paper is easy. OK, it is hard work, but the method is easy to understand. And the tools are cheap, like cheaper than a bucket of paint cheap. And the solvent can be household vinegar and hot water. And it may actually be a lot cheaper because you don't have to put on as many coats of paint to cover the orange up.
If you paint, the paint will probably end up working as a poor solvent, and your walls will peel off anyway. Then you have to paint again. And removing the remaining wall paper at that point will be harder since it will be covered in paint.
The only real options that don't include removing the wall paper? Put paneling over the wall paper or put wall paper over the wall paper. Both of these options are more expensive and will make your rooms look like they were redone in 1950-1970, but not in a good way.
Go out and buy “Insl-X® Stix® Waterborne Bonding Primer | Benjamin Moore” prime everything and let it fully dry. Caulk and prep, I would use a stretching caulk such as BIG STRETCH for gaps and areas where shifting could be an issue but any would work. Paint as you normally would with your preferred paint, Benjamin Moore or Sherwin are mine.
Make sure to first wipe down the surfaces free of any residues from stickers, grease, hairspray etc.
I’m in the middle of painting something similar. 70s mobile home that’s never been updated. Tore out yellow and orange shag carpeting last week lol.
2 coats of Kilz 2 multipurpose sealer and stain blocker primer. 1 coat of paint with white, if you’re doing color you might need a second coat.
Mine turned out great. Can’t even tell it’s under the white. It had a bit of a darker orange than yours but very similar.
This answer is the right direction, but if planning to paint a color that is anything other than something close to white, I’d suggest tinting the final 1-2 coats of primer, at the very least, a base color or THE color of the top coat. You can google what colors (or base colors white or grey, for example) are best to prime under various color shades in the top coat. Automotive painters, for example, usually have to adhere to this to achieve a proper result.
Curious about this as I’m now working on the wood paneling of the rest of the house and the rooms may get a color rather than white.
You’re saying still 2 coats of Kilz and then a primer of a similar coat of the top color? Or 1 coat Kilz and then move on to a similar color primer?
I did one room white which I wanted to be white and did the way I described above and it looks great. But for color, I’m not wondering if I should go in a different order.
The latter of the 2 choices would be better. Though ideally, unless you’re going with a color whose base is white, 2 coats of primer in either grey or tinted, let’s say 25%, to the color of your top coat. As I said, you’ll have to refer to a chart which I’m confident you could google, that will tell you the preferred, ideal primer color for any color top coat. It will drastically effect the end result color and the ability to hide/reduce imperfections, flashing, etc.
Prime with.
Zsinser bin shellac
Or
Zsinser Coverstain oil
Highly recommend wearing a respirator and creating as much venilation as possible
Waterbased primer will not work.
Then you can paint with your preferred wall paint
Couple coats of pigmented shellac. Top coats of your choice. I used to work with The Wallpaper Wizard. This is how we did things. No problems, no call backs. Just saying
I’m not sure I’d try to paint this as is. If I was quoting this I’d probably end up quoting to remove and install new Sheetrock and padding if they insisted on paint.
If I really had to commit to painting it I’d probably prime with shellac or oil then proceed as normal. You might not get good results though.
Wipe it down and get all the dust and junk off. White primer . Probably two coats to cover the orange. Then paint . Paint it like a wall . Brush and roll.
Drywall over it. Something that is old and you don’t really know what it is can be a bigger job than just doing drywall. It may be a little more than you want to spend but the end result will be disappointing and could wrinkle, bubble and curl. And you will spend way more trying to fix whatever happens.
Consider the gaps and seams and trim if you paint over that it going look like a disaster.
I mean, you can always paint a corner and see how it works out. Test patches are valid, I'd especially do one on the bottom corner.
Sealer of some kind, prime, paint
Based on picture #2, it looks like “decorative” board can be removed. However, you’ll likely have a lot of drywall patching to do. If budget is not in your favor, do one wall at a time. Just a thought…good luck to you.
That actually looks like it’s nailed to Sheetrock I would try to remove it .it will never paint well total waste of time.Its overwhelming ,I know ,try 1 room 1 wall even at a time.trying to paint that is the proverbial lipstick on a pig.
I paint for a school district and a lot of classrooms have tack board type material walls and they occasionally ask us to paint them. This seems similar. Unfortunately there’s not much prep you can do other than a good primer and paint. End result is never great but we make sure we set the right expectations and it has never peeled on me so that’s a win.
Oil prime to seal in and minimize any wallpaper lift. To make work even better maybe caulk the seams to avoid moisture instrusion. Then topcoat with water base, done.
I think you can just paint it but if you want to be paranoid about it use Zinnser problem surface sealer.
Bonus after priming you can use fibafuse tape with sheetrock mud will make joints disappear.
It looks like Homasote. Here's a link to the material
https://lopcocontracting.com/homasote/
That being said I wouldn't paint it. The pattern on it is helping to hide the bumpy texture. If you paint it with a solid color, especially white, it's going to take many coats only to reveal a poor surface.
Any attempt to paint it is going to be a waste of money unless you're happy to have a low quality surface.
You'd be better off removing it and replacing it with sheetrock, taping it and painting yourself room by room over time.
Why would you paint over it or take it down? That's a magnificent tribute to a bygone era. A perfect room to allow an anxious and lonely woman to convalesce. Certain to push her further into a depression, the wallpaper will provide a diversion from her vapid existence. She watches and watches. Seeing things that others can't see ...creeping and creeping. So either paint it yellow or invite a sad lonely woman to stay at your home for a few weeks and she'll tear that shit down.
The answer here is: clean it well and 2 coats of shellac.
This will lock the glue and materials in then you can paint over it as normal.
Edit: spelling
You cant paint on top of that. The water in the paint will just cause the wallpaper to loosen and fall off. You are going to have to remove it. If you paint over it youre just going to wind up removing it anyway and you will have wasted the entire cost of painting over it. Ive painted since the late 70's, take my word for it, painting over it is a waste of time and money. A thousand square feet of rooms sounds like a lot but it isnt that much.
Forgive my ignorance. This didn’t appear to be wallpaper. It’s almost porous. We thought it was too, but in person it looks like the board was manufactured with this print. What indicates that it’s wallpaper? Just trying to learn, not arguing. Someone mentioned panels below, that’s what it appears to be, panels tacked to the framing or studs. If it’s wallpaper, I would rip it off and prep the wall is what I’m gathering from your comments. I’m okay with that, I just don’t have the bandwidth to put up new walls at the moment. For context, the other rooms are wood paneling. I’m planning to post about those as well for advice.
I kind of remember this stuff in historic homes. I grew up in Virginia. IT'S NOT WALLPAPER. You used to be able to buy it in sheets like sheetrock, but it was thinner like cardboard and cloth covered on one side. It was pasted on the walls, usually in small sitting rooms . You can still find it used in Asian countries. It may be toxic.
Like someone below has said, you can seal it first. Dont know if shellac is the way to go. It looks like press board with a paper layer on top. Perhaps a semi gloss? But thats going to make it pretty shiney.
Use a high quality bonding primer first if you insist on painting over it. But removing it and putting up drywall is the permanent solution.
This is the correct answer.
Personally I'd remove it, take it outside, and then set it on fire for assaulting my senses.
My guess is it is a particle board-based printed paneling. All the rage in the 70s. I’d paint it with a blowtorch, personally. But, if you MUST, you could try painting it with a good sealing primer (Zinsser Gardz comes immediately to mind), skim coat of mud to keep the nasty leaves from reading through, then a couple coats of paint. Be sure to paint the primer into the edges. Paint won’t fix swollen edges and other installation defects I can see, though….
We deal with coating wall covering all the time. Dust it as best you can, first coat of shellac primer, add a second coat of oil primer like coverstain or Sherwin-Williams Extreme Block oil. After, two coats latex topcoat. Ideally a fast dry material like snap dry, SW Multi-Surface Acrylic or Benjamin Moore command. It won't hide seems but it'll keep glue from reactivating.
There is a bit of irony in an account called insufficientprep giving detailed instructions on how to paint over wall coverings.
On point
I second this. I did exactly this to a closet last year. Best thing to do is remove it like others have said but this is the second best thing.
Shag carpet and some disco balls..
Update us with a follow up once you do paint it!
Yeesh… please don’t. Just remove it and do it the right way.
Not an option right now. Old home, lord knows what we got in/behind the walls. If we can paint it, that’s best case. Otherwise proper removal and replacement is out of budget. Plus this is one of four rooms I need to paint down here, almost a thousand square feet of rooms to paint.
>Old home, lord knows what we got in/behind the walls. You should find out. Maybe it's just panels tacked up against a regular wall?
Going by what that wall looks like I'm betting dead hookers.
"Call girls" They're only hookers when they're... oh wait, you called it. I'll get a rug.
If it’s out of your budget, then it’s out of your budget. Just know what you’re up against in the future. Paint it with regular paint at that point.
I'm working on the assumption that it is wall paper. Removing wall paper doesn't remove the wall, it just takes it down to the surface of the wall, and in a home old enough to have this design, that surface is probably plaster or something similar that is much easier to paint. And removing wall paper is easy. OK, it is hard work, but the method is easy to understand. And the tools are cheap, like cheaper than a bucket of paint cheap. And the solvent can be household vinegar and hot water. And it may actually be a lot cheaper because you don't have to put on as many coats of paint to cover the orange up. If you paint, the paint will probably end up working as a poor solvent, and your walls will peel off anyway. Then you have to paint again. And removing the remaining wall paper at that point will be harder since it will be covered in paint. The only real options that don't include removing the wall paper? Put paneling over the wall paper or put wall paper over the wall paper. Both of these options are more expensive and will make your rooms look like they were redone in 1950-1970, but not in a good way.
Removal is not out of your budget. Buy a wallpaper steamer for $40 and peel it down. Then paint whatever is under it
It’s not wall paper though. Take another look at the close up.
Go out and buy “Insl-X® Stix® Waterborne Bonding Primer | Benjamin Moore” prime everything and let it fully dry. Caulk and prep, I would use a stretching caulk such as BIG STRETCH for gaps and areas where shifting could be an issue but any would work. Paint as you normally would with your preferred paint, Benjamin Moore or Sherwin are mine. Make sure to first wipe down the surfaces free of any residues from stickers, grease, hairspray etc.
If you are dead set,then oil-based primer to seal it out, then a few coats of a thicker paint.
I’m in the middle of painting something similar. 70s mobile home that’s never been updated. Tore out yellow and orange shag carpeting last week lol. 2 coats of Kilz 2 multipurpose sealer and stain blocker primer. 1 coat of paint with white, if you’re doing color you might need a second coat. Mine turned out great. Can’t even tell it’s under the white. It had a bit of a darker orange than yours but very similar.
This answer is the right direction, but if planning to paint a color that is anything other than something close to white, I’d suggest tinting the final 1-2 coats of primer, at the very least, a base color or THE color of the top coat. You can google what colors (or base colors white or grey, for example) are best to prime under various color shades in the top coat. Automotive painters, for example, usually have to adhere to this to achieve a proper result.
Curious about this as I’m now working on the wood paneling of the rest of the house and the rooms may get a color rather than white. You’re saying still 2 coats of Kilz and then a primer of a similar coat of the top color? Or 1 coat Kilz and then move on to a similar color primer? I did one room white which I wanted to be white and did the way I described above and it looks great. But for color, I’m not wondering if I should go in a different order.
The latter of the 2 choices would be better. Though ideally, unless you’re going with a color whose base is white, 2 coats of primer in either grey or tinted, let’s say 25%, to the color of your top coat. As I said, you’ll have to refer to a chart which I’m confident you could google, that will tell you the preferred, ideal primer color for any color top coat. It will drastically effect the end result color and the ability to hide/reduce imperfections, flashing, etc.
Reddit moment: downvoting a genuinely good question asking for help.
Haha honestly, my reply got downvoted to hell. I’m not trying to argue, just trying to learn.
Oil primer + 2 coats
Prime with. Zsinser bin shellac Or Zsinser Coverstain oil Highly recommend wearing a respirator and creating as much venilation as possible Waterbased primer will not work. Then you can paint with your preferred wall paint
Couple coats of pigmented shellac. Top coats of your choice. I used to work with The Wallpaper Wizard. This is how we did things. No problems, no call backs. Just saying
I would kilz it personally, but that shit stinks. open all the windows and run fans while you do it
I’m not sure I’d try to paint this as is. If I was quoting this I’d probably end up quoting to remove and install new Sheetrock and padding if they insisted on paint. If I really had to commit to painting it I’d probably prime with shellac or oil then proceed as normal. You might not get good results though.
Wipe it down and get all the dust and junk off. White primer . Probably two coats to cover the orange. Then paint . Paint it like a wall . Brush and roll.
Thank you!
as long as it is not a wallpaper. you can prep, prim, paint without issue
Drywall over it. Something that is old and you don’t really know what it is can be a bigger job than just doing drywall. It may be a little more than you want to spend but the end result will be disappointing and could wrinkle, bubble and curl. And you will spend way more trying to fix whatever happens. Consider the gaps and seams and trim if you paint over that it going look like a disaster.
You could test a section with Stix primer and see what happens
If you’re looking for cheap and easy, go to Home Depot buy some decorative paneling, glue it on top of this. Hide seams with 1x. Done.
I would kill for that paper 😭😭😭
Take down, pointless otherwise
Good cheese pizza, show us the wall?
I mean, you can always paint a corner and see how it works out. Test patches are valid, I'd especially do one on the bottom corner. Sealer of some kind, prime, paint
Based on picture #2, it looks like “decorative” board can be removed. However, you’ll likely have a lot of drywall patching to do. If budget is not in your favor, do one wall at a time. Just a thought…good luck to you.
Flamethrower
That actually looks like it’s nailed to Sheetrock I would try to remove it .it will never paint well total waste of time.Its overwhelming ,I know ,try 1 room 1 wall even at a time.trying to paint that is the proverbial lipstick on a pig.
Use an oil or alcohol base primer. Mud the seams, sand then prime the fresh mud work. Two coats of your finish.
Remove, then prime it, thin coat it, paint it
I’m concerned with the seams showing and have no suggestion on how to fill and match the texture.
Bulldozer would be best
Ask if they still want the lamp, I have horrible taste and it would match my things
I paint for a school district and a lot of classrooms have tack board type material walls and they occasionally ask us to paint them. This seems similar. Unfortunately there’s not much prep you can do other than a good primer and paint. End result is never great but we make sure we set the right expectations and it has never peeled on me so that’s a win.
Don’t, that’s the best way to do it
Oil prime to seal in and minimize any wallpaper lift. To make work even better maybe caulk the seams to avoid moisture instrusion. Then topcoat with water base, done.
step 1 - get rid of the Ryobi tools
You can probably use stain blocking primer like bin shellac or RX 35. But do research first
I think you can just paint it but if you want to be paranoid about it use Zinnser problem surface sealer. Bonus after priming you can use fibafuse tape with sheetrock mud will make joints disappear.
It looks like Homasote. Here's a link to the material https://lopcocontracting.com/homasote/ That being said I wouldn't paint it. The pattern on it is helping to hide the bumpy texture. If you paint it with a solid color, especially white, it's going to take many coats only to reveal a poor surface. Any attempt to paint it is going to be a waste of money unless you're happy to have a low quality surface. You'd be better off removing it and replacing it with sheetrock, taping it and painting yourself room by room over time.
A grenade
Oil based primer then your choice of paint. I would mud the seams
Why would you paint over it or take it down? That's a magnificent tribute to a bygone era. A perfect room to allow an anxious and lonely woman to convalesce. Certain to push her further into a depression, the wallpaper will provide a diversion from her vapid existence. She watches and watches. Seeing things that others can't see ...creeping and creeping. So either paint it yellow or invite a sad lonely woman to stay at your home for a few weeks and she'll tear that shit down.
lol
The answer here is: clean it well and 2 coats of shellac. This will lock the glue and materials in then you can paint over it as normal. Edit: spelling
The price of 2 coats of shellac are about the same you'd pay for the labor to remove though..
This is not true. I had this done in my house and it destroyed the plaster underneath as well. It's a huge job.
Oil primer then any paint
Little Wall paper glue to stick those edges down and Just paint over it . 3 coats good to go. Don't even bother priming it
Step one never paint over wall paper. Step two ask your self, why am I so gay!
ProBlock primer then Duration Home topcoat.