100-200 year old, bump plaster walls- completely uneven and lumpy... paint or wallpaper?

Question

You know the old walls- hand done and then repaired at this point. There is no way to get them even and I am not sure if I should just patch them the best I can and paint them or wallpaper them. I heard that if you buy thick good wallpaper- this looks better on the old plaster walls? True or False? I am worried about the wall paper looking bad after spending a ton of money on wallpaper! Thanks!

Answer 1

Definitely try using paint first. Maybe to a texture job. That will disguise a lot of the wall bumpiness.  

Answer 2

Dont try a textured paint, in a couple of years you'll be spending your weekends scraping it off again. Thick paper looks OK but only if you can hang wallpaper well.

Answer 3

I sounds like you really want to do wallpaper, but it sounds like a wallpapering nightmare!

What about "wallpapering" with fabric? It sounds like it's up your alley and it would ostensibly be flexible and strong enough to stretch over the waviness of the wall surface.

Personally, I would really look into decorative painting solutions - rag rolling, sponge painting and other effects - they are not so difficult to do and they will help to obscure the imperfections in the wall surface. I don't care for textured paint effects as yes, it's hard to undo them.

What paint job lasts more than five years? If you do a decorative painting treatment, repainting will be as simple as repainting ever was.

Answer 4

Try a texture paint