Decorating tips... I'm gonna start decorating my flat next week and was after some advice: 1. My hallway is wallpapered at the min, all i intend to do is paint it magnolia so do i HAVE to strip the paper first or can you just paint over it (with good results). If yes is it just undercoat then emulsion or what? this is new to me so sorry if i sound dense! 2. The doors are all a varnished brown and we want those white.. is it just undercoat then gloss for those? Thanx
I dont think you can just paint on varnish, can you?? :think: Think you'd have to sand it first. The wallpaper. You can paint wallpaper, but it turns out better if its wallpaper than you are meant to repaint, rather than just normal stuff. Just try a bit first and see what it turns out like. You'll probs need a couple of coates depending on how dark the paper is. If you strip it off then paint it, you'd have to plaster it or it'll look really lumpy and you see every tiny little scrape and dint.
If it's a stained/varnished door, you need to put a primer on top of it before applying gloss if you are not sanding down to bare wood. Still got to sand the door down before you apply any layer of paint & make sure it's clean from dirt and is dry, otherwise the paint won't go on smoothly & could bubble.
if its an old building beware when peeling wallpaper off because it might bring chunks of the wall out too and re-plastering to a good standard is hard to do if you're no good at DIY.
I had that in my Living Room when I moved last year! When I stripped the wallpaper off, half of the wall came away with it! Looks good now, but hell of a job patching things up! To be honest, whole room could have done with being re-plastered but couldn't be bothered with that! I'll have moved out by the next time it's due to be decorated (I hope!!!)
tell me about it, my sister moved into an old cottage in the west country this summer and I was helping her out doing up the place, we took the wallpaper off and the whole wall came off.....the house was like 200 years old but still...... i just had to sit down and quietly swear at myself
in that case its worth the money if you buy dulux onecoat paint, if it doesnt completely cover whats underneath in one coat, your money back
