Painting a wallpapered ceiling

Pinkangel

Hi

One of our bedrooms has a ceiling covered in textured wallpaper. We can't afford to do anything with this but would like to freshen it up, so are planning to put a new coat of white paint on it.

I've never painted a wallpapered ceiling before, and wondered if it could cause any problems. Is it likely to loosen the paper and make it peel off? The paper currently looks to be in decent condition, and I don't think it will have had many coats of paint prior to this one.

Thanks!

EssexExile

Shouldn't be a problem.

FreeBear

If it is anaglypta paper, then it is designed to be painted.

onomatopoeia99

Strip the paper, rub down / fill any rough bits, then paint it. It's all manual labour, no real cost. If it's to bad it may need skimming, of course.

The next owners will thank you. Whatever you do, don't put artex swirls up in its place.

I live in a house wher the ceilings are either painted woodchip or artex. Sorting it out, one room at a time, is hard work!

societys_child

Strip the paper, rub down / fill any rough bits, then paint it. It's all manual labour, no real cost.

. . . but time consuming.

If it's to bad it may need skimming, of course.

Yeah.

A coat of paint it is then.

Norman_Castle

Its unlikely to come off but if areas do come off they can be put back with wall paper paste.

Pinkangel

Thanks for the replies everyone. In light of what's been said we're thinking we'll risk it. The alternative is to leave the yellowing paper as it is, which isn't very appealing. We would love to have it over-boarded and skimmed, but we've got a baby who will very soon need to move into that bedroom, so the time pressure coupled with a lack of funds mean we're stuck with a textured ceiling! Hopefully by the end of the process it will at least be a fresh white textured ceiling!

sn1987a

I am in the same situation. The wallpaper is on the ceiling only... Impossible for us to remove it. I found a paint for painting over wallpaper. I am going to try one coat of this paint before painting it over. I read that the first coat should be with an oil based paint so the wallpaper wouldn't bubble.

EachPenny

societys_child wrote: »

. . . but time consuming.
...
A coat of paint it is then.

I agree. The chances are a textured wallpaper was put up to hide something unpleasant underneath, so stripping the paper off might open yourself up to considerable work repairing previous nasties... at which point skimming is the only realistic option.

I've never had a problem painting textured wallpapered ceilings, if it has already had at least one coat of paint then the chances of a problem are very slim. If you do get any peeling my choice would be to use some PVA (border adhesive) to reattach. This may cause future decorators to curse you, but if the priority is to get it looking good now then I would be less concerned about the future

The one thing to be careful about is if you decide to do more than one coat then make absolutely sure the first is fully dried before doing the second. Any dampness from the first coat can make the paper peel when you apply the second. Also, if the ceiling is yellow due to people smoking in the room then one coat won't be enough, so don't be too disappointed if any yellowing remains after coat one.

I don't think you will need 'special' paint. You only really need that if the wallpaper has a finish which rejects a water-based paint and makes it form globules. Make sure you use a non-drip or 'solid' paint though, and don't be tempted to add any water to it.

Giddypip

My stepfather papered all of the ceilings in my mum's house about 35 years ago, numerous coats of paint later they are still going strong. A leak from the bathroom loosened the dining room ceiling which was soon fixed with a bit of wallpaper paste. If I had the skill, I'd paper all of mine as I dislike flat ceilings.

FreeBear

societys_child wrote: »

Strip the paper, rub down / fill any rough bits, then paint it. It's all manual labour, no real cost.

. . . but time consuming.

Also a real pain to do if working off a stepladder if one is even slightly vertically challenged. For this type of work, a small scaffold tower is an advantage (you could run a plank between two ladders, but it isn't particularly safe).