Often times wallpaper is applied directly over drywall or an unprimed surface making it very difficult to remove. If wallpaper strippers and steamers have not worked, it is easiest to paint over the wallpaper.
1. Remove as much of the wallpaper as possible, especially curled up pieces and loose seams.
2. Do Not use a waterbase primer to seal the wallpaper. The water in the primer will reactivate the wallpaper paste causing seams to peel up. Use an oil-base primer such as Shieldz from Zinsser.
3. When the primer has dried, sand the wall down if there are any pieces of wallcovering that have been raised by the brush or roller.
4. If there are any damaged spots in the wall from trying to remove the wallpaper, fill them with joint compound or spackling. When dry, lightly sand the spackling with 180 grit sand paper.
5. Spot prime the areas that you spackled with the same oil base primer or all-purpose primer. You are now ready to finish coat your wall with your new paint color.
