Wall paper for painting ?

Cheap £2 a roll non vinyl wallpaper or thick lining paper.

-- Sir Benjamin Middlethwaite

How bad is it? Small cracks, etc. can be dealt with by using a float and wiping runny polyfilla over the surface. Holes can be filled and rubbed down gently with glasspaper on a wooden block. You can apply a coat of paint (do *not* use rubbish!) and see how it looks - and then make good imperfections.

It would work (you want "whites"), but the surface still needs to be reasonable, or the result will "look pretty crap"! You could do a halfway thing - paper the worst, paint the rest.

Lining paper will be most resistant to damage from furniture rubbing against it. "Wood chip" (ingrain) is OK, but the "chips" may come out. Embossed papers are more likely to flatten or rip.

Wickes do 1000 guage lining paper. like hardboarding the wall.

They do long rolls, too (50m) for £3.59 ISTR. This paper is not first quality, but it's OK if you don't rub it a lot putting it on. It needs a *lot* of soaking to become pliable, 20 minutes is OK. Wipe the wall over with paste, too.

Indeed. We use 1400 grade - superb for covering imperfections and a doddle to hang seem-free given the thickness!

Mathew

Thick lining paper, possibly more than one layer.

Rick

Thanks to all Trip to Wickes it is.

Kind regards, Mike

You can get some very nice embossed wallpapers nowadays, my brother has them. Just paint over them in the colour of your choice, very effective.

Andy.

You can also get "lining paper for decorative surfaces" from B&Q or Focus. This has a blown vinyl layer (which isn't mentioned on the label) but virtually no texture, so you can't tell it from standard lining paper once it's up. Slightly less forgiving so soak for half an hour to avoid bubbles. Less absorbent so a lot less paint required to get a good finish