Painting plaster walls?

[alloalloo]

In my new flat I've stripped off the wallpaper in one room and beneath it is bare plaster, but in areas the surface of the plaster has come off too, so it's darker there than other areas. I don't really want to have to put lining paper up, can I just white wash and then paint on the plaster or will the darker areas where the surface has come off show through?

What do you mean by the plaster has come off? You might need a bit of filler in them to get a smooth finish.
Can you post a pic?

If it's bare plaster that's never been painted before you will need a mist coat. Water down a cheap tub of white paint and add a coat of that before painting the colour you want.

Yes I'm going to paint with watered down emulsion before applying normal emulsion.

It's hard to describe, but it's as if the surface of the player has flaked off, a very thin layer, whilst removing the wallpaper, the pale pink part, exposing a darker brownish layer underneath. I've been trying to cover with polyfilla, but it's quite a few areas.

I'm not at home but will add a photo tomorrow.

If you want it to look good you will have to fill and rub down every single little flaw in those walls.

This is what the walls look like now.

I'd start by getting a sander and going over the whole wall with it, eg a circular sander (connect to a vacuum cleaner to minimise mess). It looks like there is wallpaper residue so it will get rid of that sort of thing. Then you can get a sense of how smooth it is and decide what to do next, eg any filling you need to do. Lining paper would be an option but you will always see the joins, I think you can get the wall sorted with a bit of effort

Zinsser Gardz is brilliant for priming uneven walls with flakey plaster or wallpaper paste residue.

My XH was a decorator and he caulked the joins on lining paper so they didn’t show. It worked really well.

Hard to tell from the photos, but I would try an area with Zinsser Gardz and see if a couple of top coats covers it, otherwise it's paper or a skim coat of plaster.

Thanks all. I can't get someone in to plaster it, I'm on a low budget.

From the photos, the darker spots actually look like bare gypsum plaster; the lighter surface looks like some sort of a primer / sealer that has flaked off in places when you removed the wallpaper. How old is the property?

That's possible. The property is about 35 years old.