What to paint on stripped plaster wall?

[Dan S. MacAbre]

I've stripped our bedroom wall down the plaster. The old surface was very uneven, because lots of paint had fallen off, leaving it patchy, and my attempt to paint over it just seemed to make it worse. I got something called Enviromose, which is one of these benzyl alcohol strippers of a type I'd never used before. It leaves the surface gooey after 24hrs, and is still a pain to get off; but I'd just about given up on finding anything at all that would touch emulsion. Anyway, I could only face doing a bit a night, and the whole thing has taken about a month to finish. Mad, I know :-) Anyway, to save me having the same problem in future, what should I paint it with now? I've read that you can use emulsion mixed with water, but at what ratio? 50:50?

[newshound]

Does no-one else use lining paper any more? The extra thick stuff is brilliant. You do have to have learned the "technique" to get invisible joins.

[nothanks]

I've got some lining to do soon on a ceiling - I'm not looking forward to it.

[Iggy]

replying to Dan S. MacAbre, Iggy wrote: I'm in the U.S., but everything I've seen over the years says Dulux brand is the ONLY top quality reliable brand. Don't dilute and don't buy anything that needs dilution (Trade Grade). Don't be swayed by lesser nor higher prices nor marketing claims nor store staff steering, ignore all others and you'll never have the problems you just finished removing. The rest are junk.

You'll need to first apply a Primer Undercoat and then 2-coats of Emulsion. Whenever using a brush, always finish your paint lay-on by stippling the paint with the tip of your brush. This, mimics a roller's stipple or orange peel finish. Apply your Primer and Emulsion in single strips starting in the middle of the wall, roll that strip up to the ceiling and down to the floor or baseboard a few times to distribute the paint evenly. Don't use any V, N or W pattern, just an I.

[Dan S. MacAbre]

I've sort of vowed to never use wallpaper again. I prefer the look of woodwork (skirting and architrave) against painted wall, with the tiniest amount of caulk possible, or none at all if a wall is flat enough. To my mind, lining paper would have made that more difficult, since you'd either have to caulk over the paper, or have a visible paper edge, neither of which I really fancy. I like to make things difficult for myself :-)

[tabbypurr]

Since you're in the US it should come as no surprise that this is not true here.

NT

[Iggy]

replying to tabbypurr, Iggy wrote: Who's the hands down winner for the last 3-years then?

[newshound]

Caulk? Apply the paper properly, paint the wood before the wall and you shouldn't see any transition. Fill any wood to plaster gap first with lightweight filler on a fingertip.

[Dan S. MacAbre]

I'll not be painting the wood :-) We've decided we like the look of bare wood, either new, or stripped and re-used.