ᐅ Painting or wallpapering?

Hello everyone,

Our (quick-drying) screed has been in the house since yesterday, and we are gradually starting to plan the design of the ceilings and walls.

We keep hearing different opinions.

Is it better to just paint or should we use wallpaper?

What about cracking? Does a fleece wallpaper cover the settlement cracks that will likely appear in the background, or is that ineffective and painting the walls is enough?

Our painter suggested wallpapering the ceilings with woodchip wallpaper (of course, with proper priming) and then painting them (woodchip apparently offers better sound insulation than fleece), and to "just" paint the walls.

Does that even look good—having wallpaper on the ceiling and bare painted walls?

When is it appropriate to start painting or wallpapering?

What are your experiences or advice?

Good luck FrauGese

We are facing the same question and have gathered different opinions. On the upper floor, where we built with timber frame construction, a fleece membrane was applied because it is more flexible. On the ground floor, we have woodchip wallpaper on the ceiling. We are painting both ourselves.

Initially, we planned to just paint the walls, but we have now heard from several people that we should also wallpaper the walls. This way, when repainting multiple times, the paint won’t soak into the masonry. Additionally, wallpaper can be removed at some point.

Hello,

Orschel schrieb:

We initially planned to just paint the walls, but several people have advised us to wallpaper them as well, so that the paint doesn’t soak into the masonry after multiple coats.

In that case, those “several” people likely did not prepare the surface properly.

For optimal paint adhesion and a clean, professional finish, the surface must be smooth, clean, and able to hold the paint.

From my own childhood experience, I only know of paint soaking into the wall... even under wallpaper, a rich blue or red color would still show through after years... :-(

Kind regards

Bauexperte schrieb:
Hello,


Then "several" people did not properly prepare the substrate.

For the paint to adhere optimally and for the coating to appear clean and professionally done, the substrate must be smooth, clean, and able to hold the paint.

From my childhood, I only remember paint soaking into the wall... even under the wallpaper, a deep blue or red was still visible after years... :-(

Kind regards

Hmm, well, that statement also came from a paint and wallpaper specialty store. Perhaps they were just trying to sell us wallpaper in addition to the paint...

Thank you for your input on my question!

I hadn’t even considered that the paint might soak into the wall and later show through the wallpaper.

If I just paint the walls now (maybe make one wall a bit darker), I will probably need to paint over it with white before wallpapering later anyway, to cover the stronger color, right?

Is the paint actually absorbed into the masonry? Or is it only on the surface of the plaster? Or just on top of the primer?

I think we will just prime and paint the walls and wallpaper the ceilings, hoping that it will look decent enough.

Good luck FrauGese

Hello!

In practice, the question answers itself quite quickly. Even if you sand the surfaces endlessly, every unevenness will still become visible after painting and look unattractive!

We wallpapered the ceilings with textured wallpaper—because of the plastered ceiling joints—and painted the walls. However, we didn’t use regular paint but paint with a mineral additive. It’s not exactly cheap, it does shed some particles, but it looks quite good.

Theoretically, you could also mix sand into the paint—but I would only consider that if there are tiles or carpet everywhere.

Best regards,
TomTom1