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I screwed up. I was pretty sure I was screwing up when I did it, but I hoped I was wrong. I wasn’t. Now I need some advice on how to fix things.
As some of you may remember, I have a 100 year old lake cottage, which has required extensive renovations/redecoration, etc. It has lath and plaster walls in the older part of the house. It had 3 layers of wall paper in every room. I stripped said wall paper in every room, re-plastered the walls (not a professional job, but not too bad for an amateur), EXCEPT the little area just inside the back door, which is a landing between two sets of stairs. It’s not a big area, but the walls were especially bad there. Again, lath and plaster, 3 layers of wallpaper. I got 2 layers off, then when I started to take the 3rd off the wall was coming with it in huge chunks. To make matters worse, the walls are odd-shaped and curved. It was another wall nightmare. Since I’d already had this problem in the other rooms, and spent months re-plastering, I was tired, and took a short cut (I don’t want to hear it!). I patched the wall paper as best I could, sealed down the ragged edges, and – yes, I painted over it.
Now, it looked really good. Until this summer. And the edges are peeling up and it looks awful. I’ve considered just gluing the edges back down, and “patching” it again, but I think I’ll be in the same position in another year or two.
So – what do I do? Should I bite the bullet and strip the mess off the walls, re-plaster, and do it right? Or – can I possibly just put new wallpaper up over the painted surface? Or should I just hire someone who knows what they are doing to come in and fix my mess? Or what? All advice is welcome – I don’t know what to do. All hand-smacking and “What were you thinking?” not welcome – I’ve done enough of that myself!
Thanks in advance for your thoughts.
Replies
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I screwed up. I was pretty sure I was screwing up when I did it, but I hoped I was wrong. I wasn't. Now I need some advice on how to fix things.
As some of you may remember, I have a 100 year old lake cottage, which has required extensive renovations/redecoration, etc. It has lath and plaster walls in the older part of the house. It had 3 layers of wall paper in every room. I stripped said wall paper in every room, re-plastered the walls (not a professional job, but not too bad for an amateur), EXCEPT the little area just inside the back door, which is a landing between two sets of stairs. It's not a big area, but the walls were especially bad there. Again, lath and plaster, 3 layers of wallpaper. I got 2 layers off, then when I started to take the 3rd off the wall was coming with it in huge chunks. To make matters worse, the walls are odd-shaped and curved. It was another wall nightmare. Since I'd already had this problem in the other rooms, and spent months re-plastering, I was tired, and took a short cut (I don't want to hear it!). I patched the wall paper as best I could, sealed down the ragged edges, and - yes, I painted over it.
Now, it looked really good. Until this summer. And the edges are peeling up and it looks awful. I've considered just gluing the edges back down, and "patching" it again, but I think I'll be in the same position in another year or two.
So - what do I do? Should I bite the bullet and strip the mess off the walls, re-plaster, and do it right? Or - can I possibly just put new wallpaper up over the painted surface? Or should I just hire someone who knows what they are doing to come in and fix my mess? Or what? All advice is welcome - I don't know what to do. All hand-smacking and "What were you thinking?" not welcome - I've done enough of that myself!
Thanks in advance for your thoughts.