Is it better to remove wallpaper before painting? For most walls, yes.
Painting over wallpaper works only when the paper is smooth, firmly stuck down and free of holes, and when you seal it with a solvent-based primer before any water-based paint touches it.
Behr puts the condition plainly in its own instructions: paint over paper in good condition, without peeling areas or holes, and remove it if it is textured, because the texture can still show after painting.
There is also a cost that shows up later. Resene, the New Zealand paint maker, warns that wallpaper is harder to strip once it has been painted, so painting over it is a decision for the next person who redecorates too.
Paint over it or take it down: a decision tree
Walk the room with a flashlight held flat against the wall, then follow the branches in order. The first branch that sends you to “remove” settles it.
- Are seams lifting, bubbling or torn across the room? A few loose edges can be glued back down. If the paper is coming away in many places, remove it: Behr’s method starts from paper without peeling areas.
- Can you feel a pattern with your hand? Embossed, flocked or heavily textured paper will telegraph through the paint. Remove it.
- Is it vinyl, or does it have a metallic print? Both can be painted, but only after a test and a sealer made for them (more on that below).
- Does the room fill with steam? Water is what releases wallpaper paste; the industry removal standard takes water-soluble adhesive off by washing it with water. In a bathroom with a daily shower, we would take the paper down rather than seal it in.
- Was the house built before 1978? This does not decide paint versus removal, but it changes how removal is done. See the section on older homes.
- Still on “paint”? Then the paper is a candidate. Do the hidden-patch test below before you commit the whole room.
What is on your wall, and what it needs first
This table sorts the common situations by what the paint makers and the trade standard say about each one.
| What is on the wall | Paint over it? | What has to happen first | Based on |
|---|---|---|---|
| Smooth paper, firmly bonded, no holes | Yes | Glue loose edges, skim the seams, seal with an oil-based primer | Behr instructions |
| Textured, embossed or flocked paper | No | Remove it; the texture shows through paint | Behr instructions |
| Solid vinyl or paper-backed vinyl | Only after a test | A sealer made for vinyl wallcovering, then watch a test patch for three weeks | Resene preparation guide |
| Paper with a metallic printed pattern | With care | A solvent-based sealer or enamel undercoat before paint | Resene preparation guide |
| Peeling, bubbled or torn in many places | No | Remove it and repair the wall underneath | Behr instructions; PCA P16 |
| Any paper in a room full of steam | Not recommended | Remove it; moisture is what loosens paste | Our reading of PCA P16 |
The Painting Contractors Association defines wallcovering broadly, as paper, vinyl, fabric or specialty material pasted to a wall or ceiling (Standard P9). Fabric and grasscloth are not in the paint makers’ instructions above, so treat them as “remove” unless the product’s own maker says otherwise.
Test a hidden patch first, especially on vinyl
Some vinyl wallpapers contain plasticizers that migrate into the paint film and leave it slightly sticky. Resene notes that the tackiness can take three weeks or longer to appear. A wall can look perfect the day the painter leaves and turn tacky a month later, when furniture pressed against it starts to stick.
The test is cheap compared with repainting a room. Pick a wall inside a closet or behind a large piece of furniture, glue and skim a seam, seal it, and give it the color you chose. Leave it for three weeks.
Then check the seam line under a flashlight, press the paint with a fingertip for tackiness, and look for lifting at the edges. A clean result means the rest of the room is a fair bet; a tacky or bubbled patch has cost you one closet wall instead of a living room.
If you paint over it: keeping the paper on the wall
Every step below protects the same thing, the bond between the paper and the wall. Water and heavy pressure are the enemies.
- Clean without soaking. Wipe dirt and grease with a damp, not wet, sponge and let the paper dry fully.
- Glue down every loose edge. Behr uses wallpaper paste so the seams lie flat. Press the edge and wipe off any squeeze-out right away.
- Hide the seams. A thin coat of drywall compound over each seam, sanded smooth once dry and wiped with a damp cloth, keeps the joints from printing through.
- Fill holes without lumps. Resene suggests pressing the paper around a hole with the handle of a putty knife before filling it, so the patch does not leave a bump.
- Seal before you paint. Behr warns that water-based paint and primer can reactivate the glue and cause peeling, so the first coat is an oil-based primer. Vinyl and metallic papers get the sealers in the table.
- Two finish coats. Behr recommends a second coat for color and finish. The primer does not count as one, as we explain in our guide to how many coats of paint interior walls need.
Two details catch people at the end.
Where paper overlaps the top of the baseboard, the edge is often ragged; Resene’s advice is to paint the baseboard and the wall the same color for the most even line.
Sheen also changes how much of the seams you see under side light, which our article on the best paint finish for walls compares finish by finish.
If you take it down: what “properly removed” means
Stripping is only half of the job. The PCA’s Standard P16, written for wallcovering removal before new finishes, spells out what a finished removal looks like:
- all of the wallcovering material is physically removed and disposed of under local and federal rules;
- all of the adhesive comes off too: water-soluble paste is washed with clean water, which may contain detergent or enzymes, and then rinsed; other adhesives are removed with the solvents or equipment their maker recommends;
- sanding the adhesive instead of removing it is not acceptable preparation when someone else stripped the paper;
- any mildew or other contamination found under the paper is dealt with;
- damage from the removal is patched, filled and sanded as part of the removal, and drywall is brought back to the specified level of finish.
That last point is the one homeowners underestimate. P16 itself says the repair work usually cannot be foreseen until the paper is off. Plan for a day of wall repair between stripping and priming, and do not let anyone roll paint over a wall that still feels slick from paste.
Older homes: what sits under the paper
The City of Charleston’s preservation guidelines (2024) remind owners that any home built before 1978 is likely to have surfaces painted with lead-based paint, and the EPA estimates that about three-quarters of U.S. homes built before 1978 still contain some.
Wallpaper often went up over painted walls. Scoring, scraping and sanding during removal can disturb that paint.
The EPA’s Renovation, Repair and Painting rule requires anyone paid to disturb painted surfaces in a pre-1978 home to be certified and trained in lead-safe work practices. In general it does not apply to owners working on their own homes, but the dust is the same, so the same care makes sense.
Why two quotes for the same papered room can differ
We do not quote prices in articles, because they change.
The number depends on the wall area and ceiling height, whether the paper stays or goes, how many layers and what kind of adhesive are behind it, how much patching the wall needs once it is bare, which primer the paper requires, how many colors you choose, and whether furniture has to be moved and the room kept in use.
The one choice here that is hard to undo
Everything else in this article can be redone: a primer recoated, a seam skimmed again, a color changed. Paint on top of wallpaper is the exception. Resene’s warning is that wallpaper is more difficult to remove once it has been painted.
So the question to settle is how long you want this wall to stay as it is.
If the paper is sound and the plan is a few years, sealing and painting is a fair shortcut. If you expect to redo the room, or the house will change hands, taking the paper down now leaves a cleaner wall for whoever comes next.
Want a painter to look at the walls with you? VMS Home Painting handles interior painting for Charleston-area homes; request an interior painting estimate and tell us what kind of paper is on the walls.
