Woodchip on the wall...

[3littlebears]

What would you do? We have a reception room which we have never decorated - sort of playroom/2nd living room. The walls are filthy and we need to repaint. However, they are covered in woodchip. The least offesnsive, unpatterned, fairly low-relief type, but still bloody woodchip. We plan to move in the next 6-12 months. Would it be ok to just paint over it, perhaps in a grey f&B shade to minimise the horror? The alternative would be to replaster and paper and paint - expensive, time-consuming and would it really be worthwhile? Can we get away with a lick of paint? opinions please!

If there's woodchip, it might be a sign that there's something underneath that needs hiding, so as you say, you'd need to replaster, paper and paint. I'd definitely just paint it.

I'd agree with GM, wallpaper can hide awful walls and woodchip was designed to do exactly that. Replastering is expensive and massively messy so if you're moving I'd just paint and bear it. Maybe play Pulp's Disco 2000 while you're decorating.

Just thinking more about this - my house has woodchip in some rooms, and it really does conceal some awful plaster, but it isn't particularly noticeable, and I wondered why that might be?

Do you have any large paintings up on the walls? That would distract from the woodchip for a start!

ooooh! Waves hand in the air - I LOVE stripping woodchip! I'd do it all day if I can. Love, love, love it!

Paint it in a matt emulsion, not silk, to minimise shine. Cover with lots of pictures.

We're having wood chip removed and replastering all the ceilings in our house, and it is so worth it, but that is because it is our forever house. In our old house we stripped the woodchip but couldn't afford to replaster and it looked terrible - far better to have left it in situ, paint and cover.

If you're moving soon, just slap a coat of paint over it. The new people might want to wallpaper anyway, so the effort of replastering may be wasted. The surface underneath may be bad, so don't start stripping unless you can live with the result or face the hassle of having a plasterer in - if you do that, you have to wait for ages for it to dry before you can paint anyway.

I now have Disco 2000 in my head..

Mu whole house is woodchip, including the ceilings!
Tis a horror, that's for sure

and when I came round to call you didn't notice me at all.

Our house was decorated completely in woodchip painted with old-lady-pink gloss paint! Nightmare to strip!

If you're not staying I'd leave it on, paint it in a nice colour and coordinate things. As long as the room looks nice woodchip in one shouldn't stop someone buying the house.

We have just stripped lots of woodchip and analglypta wallpaper from our new house.
The plaster underneath is in a pretty bad way but has been patched where most necessary and I think we now need to use lining paper before painting as we just cant get walls smooth enough and isnt worth the investment to replaster (not forever house and so much work needs doing its a low priority!). But at least lining paper is smooth and can be painted on.

well, thanks OP

I will be singing that for the rest of the day, now

tsk

...tbh I'd get rid of it. I spent years doing magnolia n' woodchip social housing developments and the thought of it still makes me shudder

Could you put new 'modern' textured wallpaper on top?

or as said before - matt paint and then large mirror and large picture.