Strip walls or paint over?

[AlanisMorningShed]

I'm temporarily living in a house belonging to a family member (probably for about a year) and then the house will be sold, it would be a renovation project for someone.

I have the opportunity to decorate. Would you go to the trouble of stripping this wallpaper off or just painting over the freshen the rooms up? Ideally I would strip it off but I haven't had to do this before, and what if it opens a can of worms with the plasterwork?

I've got this in every room 😬

I'd guess it will then show you issues with the plaster underneath. Certainly has happened in my experience and then you really need to fix the plasterwork otherwise anything going on top will look amateurish. Since it's just temporary accommodation for you then I'd paint over the top to freshen the room up, but doing more may, as you say, open a can of worms and you'll then have to explain that to your relative!

If it was your house and for the long term, I would suggest stripping the paper and skimming the plaster if necessary.

But for a house you will be in for a year? No chance.

A lick of paint to freshen up is more than enough.

Ok, if I clean it and paint it, will it likely moisten the wallpaper and then it starts to come off? I'm a novice here, my current house has no wallpaper in it 😄

I would just paint over it. In my experience (ex painter and decorator) wallpaper rarely comes away without damage and often leads to replastering.

I’d do nothing. Painting over is going to look terrible and is also quite expensive now.

Paint over, that’s going to be a nightmare to strip off

It looks like the type of paper that’s designed to be painted on so it shouldn’t start peeling off, but you could test a bit that’s hidden by furniture by sponging some water on it and see what happens

I have a tonne of this in my house and weirdly I've found it's this textured stuff that comes off more easily in big chunks (using a steamer) than the thinner stuff. However, agree that the walls would likely need lining paper as a minimum so if I was the OP I would paint over.