First things first: Priming
Before you do anything you must prime the wallpaper for a few reasons: First, to seal off the wallpaper so that it won't be re-wetted by moisture from subsequent latex paints applied over it. Second, to seal off any inks that might bleed into the paint. Third, to ensure adhesion of the finish paint to the wallpaper itself.
Prime the wallpaper with an alkyd (oil) primer such as Zinsser's Coverstain or XIM 400 white. These primers smell a bit so you will need to provide for good ventilation during and after priming.
Prime the whole surface again
The amount of drywall compound on the wall with the wide bands of joint compound over each wallpaper seam will amount to about 75% of the wall surface being joint compound once the mudding is completed. So just go ahead a prime the whole surface again, but this time you can tint the primer to match the finish paint coat color. I would use the alkyd primer again for this for the same reasons as for the original priming. Now, with two coats of oil primer on the wall, your old wallpaper is sealed very well.
Paint
Play it safe and stay away from semi-gloss paint for the finish coat. A flat or satin sheen paint should look good without accenting the taped and finished joints.
If you primed and kept your joint compound flat (without a built up hump) and feathered out, once the walls are painted you will not be able to tell if wallpaper was ever on the wall to start with.
Taping the seams.
In order to do a professional looking job you will need to tape each seam with drywall joint tape. You can use either mesh tape or regular paper tape for this. Remember that you are doing a "butt" joint or un-tapered joint so that you will need to feather out the drywall compound a bit wider than you would on a tapered drywall joint. If you don't feather out the compound over a wide band ( of about 18" - 24" ) you will have a hump on every seam which will look terrible if you paint with a sheen paint. You will apply the tape two or three coats of compound over the tape, each coat a bit wider than the previous coat of compound with the overall finished width of about 18" - 24" upon the final coat. After the final coat is dried and sanded you will need to:
Can you paint over wallpaper and get a good looking job? Yes.
While it is much preferred that you remove the wallpaper and not paint over it. I know from experience that wallpaper applied to bare drywall or unprimed flat paint on a new construction job can be nearly impossible to remove. It is ONLY under thses circumstances that I will leave the wallpaper up and paint over it.
So, what all is involved in painting over wallpaper? I will tell you how I do it (when I have to do it) so that the walls look like new drywall.
Painting Over Wallpaper
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