Wall needs help - paint and texture cracking?

[JoannaDarling]

We just recently bought our first house, and it has tons of floral wallpaper. We're in the middle of trying to take the wallpaper down in the kitchen so we can paint the walls, and after taking it off of our first wall, I think we've run into trouble.

The wall underneath the wallpaper is really gross, and I think that must be why they covered it in wallpaper. I've attached a few pictures. If at all possible, we'd like to repair the wall so we can paint it.

There seems to be some gray textured paint on the wall that was pulled off with some of the wallpaper. Also, the center of the wall seems to have at one point been a window? And is now plastered over. Also, right below the heater is a wooden block stuck into the wall, which we'll need to cover before we paint.

This is what we're thinking - sand down the plaster in the middle and all the sections that don't have texture, then buy one of those texture paint cans and spray those areas with texture. Do you think this will work? Do we need to do anything else? And if so, how???

 

[sm02]

Hi Joanna,

This is what I would do. Sand down anything like looks like it's peeling off of the wall, then go get one of those monstrous buckets of joint compound (I buy mine at Lowes, in the drywall department. It's very cheap). If you want a really neat textured look, use a spatula to apply the compound to your walls. I would test the technique in a hidden area to get it the way you like it before going on to the rest of the room. For mine, I put it on in a random kind of way, then dragged my spatula through it in all directions. The result looks like the kind of faux texture my local Olive Garden has on it's interior walls. I totally love it.

If you want something smooth instead, use a trowel to apply the compound all over and try to get it as perfectly smooth as you can. Wait until it is completely dry, then sand your wall until it's smooth.

I hope this helps! I've done this already and I totally understand the horrors of finding a nasty wall hidden behind something. It will be much cheaper than using the spray cans of texture. The compound costs $12 for 62 pounds of it, and it is easy to use once you get the hang of it. If you mess up, you could always scrap it off with your spatula before it dries.

Good luck!
SM