Can You Paint Over Wallpaper in St. Louis, MO?

If you have wallpaper in your home and you decide that you want your walls to be painted instead, do you remove the wallpaper first before painting the walls or is it possible to paint over wallpaper in St. Louis, MO?

Wallpaper can be a great way to decorate a room but if you have moved into a new home or apartment and find something that looks like it came out of the 1960s and you just don’t dig that style — it might be a good idea for you to get the walls painted instead.

That being the case, you would think that in cases like this, you are going to have to spend many hours scraping the wallpaper off of the wall before you will be able to get paint on the wall.

This raises the fundamental question — can you paint over wallpaper in St. Louis, MO?

How To Paint Over Wallpaper — A Step By Step Tutorial

If you follow some simple advice you will come to find that it is quite possible to paint over wallpaper.

One of the biggest obstacles to properly painting over wallpaper comes in the form of the seams that are found where the different pieces of wallpaper meet.

It’s significant enough in the world of wall painting that you are absolutely going to want to use the right primer first and foremost.

The primer used has to be a very specific oil base primer or Gardz, which is a problem surface sealer.

After the area of the seams are properly covered with said primer, you can skim coat the seams.

Apply Primer Paint Next

You’re next going to want to make sure to apply primer paint evenly all over the surfaces of the wallpaper.

Primer paint is like one of your best friends in the world of painting surfaces and in particular, you are going to want to make sure that your wallpaper is properly covered with primer paint before you use the actual paint that you have chosen for your paint job.

It is important to do this also because there is adhesive in the wallpaper of course (which is what makes it stick to the wall and so difficult to remove in the first place) and you are going to want to seal in this adhesive and keep it as far away from the moisture in the paint as possible.

Can you imagine what would happen if the moisture in the paint combined with the adhesive in the wallpaper?

If you are thinking that the combination of the two would make the wallpaper peel and even bubble, that is absolutely right.

Just imagine how awful it would be if you were to paint over your wallpaper without any primer first and then come to find that the painted wallpaper has come half off of the wall due to improper preparation.

Most likely that would lead to your either giving up having a painted room and resigning yourself to having a room that looks like someone tried but failed to paint over their wallpaper or your having to start all over again from scratch to get the project going.

Next, Paint With The Color Of Your Choice

Apply a first and then a second coat of your selected paint, allowing each coat to properly dry before applying the next.

Though it might seem like one coat of paint is going to suffice to get your wallpaper covered, you will notice that in most cases, you will still be able to see some of the patterns through the paint.

When that happens, you will know that you will have to apply another coat of paint.

At Selah Painting, we help you choose the best type of paint and color for your project at no extra cost.

We also take the proper steps to ensure that your interior lasts as long as possible.

There are unique steps and processes that we take, which most other painting contractors don’t want to take the time to perform. 

We would love the opportunity to be your go-to interior painter in St. Louis, MO. Call us at 314-582-5272 to book a FREE estimate, and let us help you enhance the interior of your home so you can focus on other things.

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