I have bought a new house and it has wall paper that has been painted...

[Stephanie c]

...over. Can it be rewallpaped? This painted wall paper is in the main bathroom The previous owner put up wallpaper and then I think he just painted over the wallpaper. It is not showing any signs of tears but I was just wondering if it would be a good idea to put wallpaper over the painted wallpaper? This bathroom has no window and I would like to put up wallpaper that would look good and help take up for the fact it has no natural light. Does anyone have any suggestions I could provide pictures if anyone has some great ideas. Thanks a millon

Stephanie

[harsuwind]

You can paper over it as long as the paper underneath the paint is attached to the wall very well. However, it's probably not the best way to do it especially since it is in a bathroom where moisture could be a problem. Although its more work, it's probably better to strip the old wallpaper first. Stripping is not as hard as you might think if you do it right. Coincidentally, I am in the process of stripping wallpaper in our home office. This is what I have found to work best:
1. buy a wallpaper scorer and an enzyme based wallpaper removing solutions. The wallpaper scorer is a tool that puts hundreds of little punctures through the wallpaper but does not damage the wall. The removing solution that I am using is Dif gel.
2. Score the wallpaper. In your case because you have paint over the wall paper, you may have to repeat steps 2 - 6 a couple ofl times
3. Use a pump sprayer with water (like the sprayer that 409 or Fantastik comes in) and wet down the wall with a fine mist of water)
4. Brush or roll on the wallpaper removing solution.
5. Cover the wall with plastic sheeting. (I use cut up 13 gallon trashbags and do a 4ft by 4ft section of wall at 1 time.)
6. Let the solution sit under the plastic for about 20 minutes, and then scrape away. The paper comes off fairly large sheets.
In your case, you may have to score through the top layer of paint using a utility knife. This should allow the solution to get behind it and attack the wallpaper.