Can You Wallpaper Textured Walls?

Textured walls can be a challenge if you want to wallpaper them without leveling the surface. However, the wallpaper for textured walls and a little extra work can easily fix this situation.

If you are hesitant about installing wallpaper on textured walls, you should put all doubts aside. By choosing the right type of wallpaper and making minor improvements to the wall, you will get an excellent result.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Textured Walls

Rough or stippled surface walls of a rented or purchased house can be confusing for new owners. However, textured walls have some practical value, in particular:

Muffle the sound in the room;
Hide the shortcomings of drywall installation;
Make the walls more wear-resistant, etc.

However, wallpapering textured walls has certain risks that concern not only the imperfect appearance of the repair. What's much worse is that mold or mildew can appear in empty areas under wallpaper if the room has high humidity. It will be difficult to get rid of them later. If this happens, you will have to remove the wallpaper, treat the walls, and make new repairs. Therefore, before installing wallpaper, find a remedy for such a situation.

Basic Strategies for Wallpapering Textured Walls

Can you put wallpaper on textured walls? Perhaps it is better to find another solution for the interior design? Textured walls are not a sufficient reason or excuse to refuse wallpapering because you can solve this problem in several ways.

Smoothing the Wall

It is the perfect recipe if you have purchased a house or apartment. By leveling the walls with drywall finish or sealant, you will save yourself from the risk of mold and mildew. In addition, you will be able to install any type of home wallpaper, which means the choice of interior design options will be greater.

Apply drywall finish to the textured wall.
Sand the wall until smooth.
Clean the wall from dust.
Apply a coat of primer.

You will not spend much time leveling the walls, but you will solve the problem once and for all.

Selecting Special Wallpaper for Textured Walls

If you are not going to live in a house for a long time or do not have the time or money for additional repair work, you can use a temporary solution. In this case, your walls also will look impressive after installing wallpaper on textured walls, even if you do not plaster the walls with a finish. But the choice of wallpaper in this case will be narrower, since only certain types are suitable for textured walls:

Wallpaper with an intense print. Sweeping patterns and multi-color visually create a colorful picture that confuses attention and masks possible defects and unevenness in the wall.
Wallpaper does not necessarily have to be multi-colored; its pattern can be strict and have restrained shades. In such a case, choose a darker color scheme, because light wallpaper reveals all the defects.
The thickness of the wallpaper is also important since thicker wallpaper hides the imperfections of the wall. Therefore, you will have to abandon simplex wallpaper.
Textured wallpaper is ideal for textured walls. Since it creates a sense of volume, you can easily disguise rough walls. Such wallpaper can imitate stone, brick, wood, fabric, etc.

Pasting Walls with Newspapers

If you want to level the walls a little but don't have the skills of a plasterer, you can try an old tried and tested recipe. It was popular in the years when the building materials market was not yet flooded with all sorts of plasters and finishes. Paste a layer of newspapers on the textured walls and then install wallpaper on top of them. In this case, you will get an additional layer of paper that will hide the wall imperfections.

How to Choose Wallpaper for Textured Walls

Since textured walls create certain risks when wallpapering, it is better to mitigate them. If you spend money on unsuitable wallpaper and time installing it, this does not guarantee you a positive result. When you enter the room after several hours, you may find that the wallpaper has wrinkles, voids, and other defects. Although you can live in such a room, you will not be able to achieve a professional and highly aesthetic look this way. Still, there is one effective solution that will save you from stress and uncertainty when installing wallpaper on textured walls.

Many wallpaper manufacturers or suppliers offer a free sample service. Order several wallpaper samples, stick them on the wall, and wait a few days. If the texture of the wall does not appear under the wallpaper, you have found the perfect solution. If you see that the wallpaper does not hide the uneven surface, it is better to refuse this type of wallpaper.

The Bottom Line

If you want to enjoy the wide choice of wallpaper for home decor and not worry about possible risks, do the extra work and level the wall. If such a task is not your priority, choose special wallpaper for textured walls. They are available in various materials, shades, and patterns. Therefore, you will certainly be able to choose the right option for your design solution.