Best paint for painting wallpaper

flat_broke

Hi all,

I just bought my first house! unfortunately the whole of the downstairs has ugly yellow vinyl silk paint on the wall paper. I'm planning on painting over the top in a more neutral colour (probably some shade of white).

Is there anything i need to bear in mind when painting on to wallpaper or on top of viynly silk? The wallpaper itself is in A1 condidition.

Also, is there a paint you would recommend. I want something the will paint over in one coat because I only have a limited time to complete it all!

Thanks in advance

nickj_2

dulux trade emulsion is about the best you can get -
you can get one cover emulsion but you tend to use twice as much
5 litres of dulux will cost you around £30 , make sure you get it from builders supplies rather than diy stores as this paint is thinner than trade stuff

d3eep

I was watching one of the many home improvement programmes the other week. Someone painted the wallpaper with a water based paint and the paper started bubbling due to the extra moisture being added to the wallpaper. They were told to splash on an oil based paint to seal the wallpaper surface from any water and then paint on top.

never_enough

I wouldn't paint over wallpaper myself, but if it's already been painted it'll be a big job to get off. You may need a couple of coats to cover the vinyl silk anyway so I wouldn't waste your money on any one coat paint. I've tried & you mostly need 2 coats so its not worth it. Dont go for cheap paint, in never seems to work out cheaper in the end as you just use more of it. As previous poster suggested Dulux trade always seems to get a good review. I tend to use 'heritage' type paints as I like darker colours, but a friend has used Dulux trade magnolia through her whole house & it's very clean & fresh (& I usually hate magnolia! )

TheOne

If it's got vinyl silk on it at the moment, don't go straight over it with vinyl matt. It will crack. If you want to go over it with matt, use a coat of vinyl soft sheen first.

misgrace

'The One' is correct, that is a trick we use in the trade.
If it had of been on non papered walls then I would have said to give the walls a good sand down and wash with sugar soap, but as its on paper you cant sand down as it will rip the paper.

If you painted matt over it, it might crack and start to flake off, therefor go over it with Soft sheen, leave for a day or so, then go over with your matt.

You could in theory go over it with cheap oilbase undercoat, this would also take the shine off and leave a base, but undercoat is quite messy and smells, plus you would have to thin down the undercoat, so you might be better of with the soft sheen.

I have used both methods in my jobs, and they both work.