Painting a Room After Papering

[steveoelliott]

Sounds like a strange question I know but I am wondering how often decorators are asked to paint a room (walls and ceilings) but asked to leave an existing papered wall in place.

 

I ask as my wife is after having a feature wallpaper hung in a bedroom decorated ~3 years ago. It's far from tired and doesn't need decorating but I have been told by two local decorators that papering the wall at this stage is silly and it would make more sense to do the room, papering the wall last. The reason given is with the new paper in place when we go to paint the walls / ceilings, a lot has to be done to protect the wallpaper in place.

 

Is this something that comes up often? Am I right to just try to persuade my wife to wait until we decorate the room in it's entirety?

 

Thanks...

[MJNewton]

I’ve (re)painted many rooms whilst having to avoid existing papered walls etc. Never had any issue whatsoever, and in fact I think it’s easier to keep paint off adjacent wallpaper than it is to keep wallpaper paste off adjacent paint.

 

i think I’d take their suggestions as simply their preference given the choice, but certainly not something that should pose them any issues at all. I suppose it does depend how good they are, and if I’ve learnt one thing about professionals over the years it’s that the title really does refer to getting paid for it and not necessarily being any good!

Edited February 9, 2023 by MJNewton

[Discoeye]

Sounds like they are covering themselves which is fine but any good decorator can work round existing wallpaper although imho I would decorate first then paper last but we all approach things in different ways but as long as we all arrive at the same result.

[Temp]

Yes Ideally paint then paper but it's not exactly rocket science to paint after one wall has been papered. I reckon it would be 10 mins extra work to paint up to the paper with a brush if that. Then a bit of care with the roller near the paper. 

 

Were they planning to spray paint? That woukd be harder with one wall already papered. 

Edited April 28, 2023 by Temp

[mbsun]

Yeah it honestly sounds like they are just covering themselves with this. I've painted loads of rooms where I have had to miss a wall for one reason or another. Not difficult to do with a little care. If you are really concerned you can always cover it in some way to keep paint off. 

 

I just guess if you go with the decorator and they get paint on it, there is little recourse as they did 'tell you so'. 

[steveoelliott]

On 25/05/2023 at 13:44, mbsun said:

Yeah it honestly sounds like they are just covering themselves with this. I've painted loads of rooms where I have had to miss a wall for one reason or another. Not difficult to do with a little care. If you are really concerned you can always cover it in some way to keep paint off. 

 

I just guess if you go with the decorator and they get paint on it, there is little recourse as they did 'tell you so'. 

I get that it would be difficult if doing the ceiling though as it would be very difficult to not have some splatter off the roller etc. I would probably look to tape some polythene over the covering from the coving down.

[mbsun]

This is exactly it! 

Some good quality tape and polythene should keep it well covered. Then also taking as much care as possible to minimise the risk of the barrier being breached. 

I get that its a little risky, but should work fine. 

[steveoelliott]

17 hours ago, mbsun said:

This is exactly it! 

Some good quality tape and polythene should keep it well covered. Then also taking as much care as possible to minimise the risk of the barrier being breached. 

I get that its a little risky, but should work fine. 

Any recommendation of specific products? I know it's a minefield.

[Discoeye]

Tesa sensitive  or similar low tack decorators tape or Tesa easy cover film and tape in one .

[mbsun]

 

On 01/06/2023 at 09:44, steveoelliott said:

Any recommendation of specific products? I know it's a minefield.

 

Personally I have used Frogtape before with good success (but I know some people haven't had as much success with this). Any polythene should be fine as long as it isn't too thin (as it might rip when you are fixing it in place). 

[Plisfict]

On 2/9/2023 at 5:03 PM, steveoelliott said:

Sounds like a strange question I know but I am wondering how often decorators are asked to paint a room (walls and ceilings) but asked to leave an existing papered wall in place.

 

I ask as my wife is after having a feature wallpaper hung in a bedroom decorated ~3 years ago. It's far from tired and doesn't need decorating but I have been told by two local decorators that papering the wall at this stage is silly and it would make more sense to do the room, papering the wall last. The reason given is with the new paper in place when we go to paint the walls / ceilings, a lot has to be done to protect the wallpaper in place.

 

Is this something that comes up often? Am I right to just try to persuade my wife to wait until we decorate the room in it's entirety?

 

Thanks...

Decorators are often asked to paint a room (walls and ceilings) but leave the existing wallpapered wall in place. This is often done when the wallpaper is a feature wall or when the homeowner is attached to the wallpaper and wants to preserve it.

 

However, it is true that painting a room with an already wallpapered wall can be a more difficult and time-consuming task than painting a room with plain walls. This is because the decorator will have to take extra care to protect the wallpaper from paint splashes and damage.

 

I would recommend decorating the walls simply using best peel and stick wallpaper. Firstly, they are easy to apply to the walls, and secondly, they are cheap. This is ideal.