decorating arghhhhhhhhhhhh

okay so the whole of the downstairs is done,all paper you paint,all neutral,tiled floors etc,new kitchen, so in the fourteen years or so that i've lived here we have never touched the upstair,apart from bathroom and toilet,so the upstairs is very nice if yuo like sleeping in a morgue,very,very dark black wallpaper in smallest room,sort of plummy purple in our bedroom,and pink in front bedroom,all the wallpaper is vinyl,can you paint it,or does it have to be stripped,we are decorating to sell,if you can paint this wallpaper what paint is needed,how many coats, etc,I love painting walls,but totally detest stripping them,or should I just buy/try a can of paint,and see what happens,
Wendy

How funny I am decorating as well 4 rooms done already just need the other 8 rooms to do, I am shattered actually and keep bobbing on and off here like a yoyo

If it's vinyl, you should be able to just pick up a corner and pull the whole sheet off, leaving a sort of backing paper behind, which you can then paint.

Good luck

Blooming 'eck Trixy, you must live in a big mansion????? 12 rooms??? Blimey, all that cleaning!!!!

Mine's all finished now Wendy, but I do sympathise with you, it's taken us 6 months to do the whole place, but that includes a new loft extension of 2 beds and 1 bath, but it's all DONE!!! Phew! You'll be able to put your feet up when it's finished. Just paint over the paper, you'll end up working twice as hard if you start stripping it off and you never know you might bring half the plaster down with it too, now that IS expensive, we've just paid £800 a room for ceilings only let alone the walls!!! Don't even go there, just paint over it to be safe!

You should really strip vinyl as paint isn't supposed to adhere very well, but I painted over some in my sons bedroom when he moved out last year as a quick makeover and it still looks damn good, so it will certainly survive until you move. Any emulsion will do I got away with 2 coats of a very pale grey over some horrible stripey stuff that he had in his room. Go for it

If it's textured vinyl you can emulsion over it, use a roller to apply the paint.

Ours was flat vinyl very smooth with stripes but it now looks like painted lining paper no texture at all, but definately use a roller

oooooooooo Trixy I sympathise with you,I absolutely know it needs doing,but I just can't seem to get the motivation,
but I must,okay so what I will do is paint one wall,see how it look after one or two coats,if awful,I shall try peeling top layer of vinyl off,if not will have to get the wallpaper steamer/stripper type thingy out of the attic,thank you so much for your advice,the only thing now is,TO DO IT, ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
Wendy

I did my lounge a few weeks ago which invloved stripping paper which i too detest,but i wanted the walls smooth so it had to go.

I peeled the top vinyl carefully by hand then used a steamer to strip the backing paper off the walls which wasnt too bad.The wallpaper though had covered a multitude of sins so i ended up skimming 2 walls with plaster,but now there dead flat and im pleased with the result.

When you steam,dont hold it on too long cause it can get inbetween the brick and plaster-forcing them apart! I stop when the backing paper goes a dark colour,but not so its saturated.

I wished

We have 4 bedrooms
1 upstairs bathroom
2 living rooms
Dining room
Kitchen
Laundrey room
Downstairs toilet
Hall way

so yes a lot of cleaning we are decorating to sell up we would like a house with a bigger garden in truth, so back to my painting tomorrow morning