Please help - lining paper yes or no?!

[Pomegranate500]

Decorating our living room for the first time (1930s home), and need to decide whether to line the walls or go straight to paint (over mist/base coats of course!). We want as smooth a look as possible without plastering and originality decided to line. Did a huge of work sanding and filling the walls and the decorator said they’re good enough to go straight to paint if we want, which has thrown us! Any advice and pros and cons would be really appreciated 🙏

We’re in a similar aged house and are lining walls which we intend to paper. Our plaster is in a terrible condition so no chance in going straight to paint, any walls we just want to paint we’ve ended up having to start from scratch.
I guess you could always do a test patch to see if you like the finish? In our previous home (again 1920’s house) we went straight to paint but I could see the repairs (DH was convinced no one else could and it was just because I knew where the patches were) it drove me mad!
I don’t think there are any downsides other than the potential for an uneven finish (base paint may absorb differently to new plaster compared to old)

Lining paper tends to shrink slightly and the join lines then stick out like a sore thumb.
Do it properly and get the walls skimmed.

I know you said no plaster, but honestly you won’t regret skimming the walls. Painting straight over will look terrible (there will be imperfections that aren’t obvious until you paint), and lining paper never gives a good smooth finish if the walls underneath are not smooth. Skimming is a bit of faff but it’s worth it (speaking from experience as we had lined walls which we took down and skimmed over).

As a decorator has said they are smooth enough, I would try painting them. One coat will show you if it’s going to be satisfactory. If not you can use lining paper.

As @Doris86 said, shrinkage can cause slight gaps between sheets. I think that can be avoided by ensuring the paper is wet enough when hanging and properly butting the edges against each other. It’s a knack. But if you do end up with thin gaps, run a layer of loose polyfilla down the gap, without overdoing it. Then, after a light sanding with fine paper, you won’t see the joins once it’s painted.

We’ve painted our 1930’s wall look fine not absolutely perfect but not far off

I’d it’s only emulsion why are you wasting money paying a decorator for it yourself

fill sand then first coat if paint this will show you imperfections then fill sand and paint again one room took 4 coats but next time it will just need 0ne

Some of mine are lined as they were in too bad a state to paint. If you have a good decorator the lining paper will look completely seamless and they take into account shrinkage. I also had some walls skimmed and then painted but they were expensive. You can do a combo like I have but I had a decorator whose opinion and expertise I trusted to say which walls needed what.

I don't see the point of lining paper, it doesn't look smooth or nice as you see the joins and it just looks like you lazily painted over wallpaper. Fine from a distance but not up close.

We used Toupret instead to fill and cracks, divits, uneven bits. You would never know we hacked of like 10 layers of paint a woodchip.

Theres tonnes of videos on youtube about how to do it but its really super easy (probably way easier than wallpapering).

Always go straight to paint unless the walls are in a poor condition. Lining paper will probably have to be removed at some point when you repaint down the line as it eventually looks tatty.

If you haven't made up your mind yet, and you have filled and flattened your walls to a good finish, give them a mist coat (possibly two as the filler will give patchy absorbency) and an undiluted coat, in white matt, then stand back and look at it. Painting it will allow your eye to see remaining imperfections. I like to clean and white walls even if they are going to be papered, it equalises the colour and absorbency.

If it shows you defects, fill and smooth them, and patch-prime with mist and white, as the absorbency and texture will be different.

I use fine finish plaster, not filler. It hardens faster and does not go soft when you put paint on it. Joint cement is very good for small patches, you can buy a readimix tub. Keep the lid shut. Only use very small amounts at a time and keep your tools surgically clean. Use a broad flat knife, pressing very hard, and shave off excess while it is cheesy. It is cleaner and quicker than sanding.

Depends on the age of the house. You won't get perfectly flat walls in an older property, nor should you aim for that.

Either way, lining paper is great for a couple of months, then you will regret it.

Surprised people saying lining paper looks bad - like any other wallpaper, you're only going to see the joins if the paper is put up badly, and the papers are designed precisely to give a smooth finish on imperfect walls. That said, if your decorator says the walls are good enough to paint, it seems like overkill to spend money putting paper up as well. Decorators have high standards, so he wouldn't say that if he didn't mean it!

Try a test coat and see how it looks, if it's bad get a quote for a skim coat of plaster, if you have done the prep I would expect it to £400 - £600 depending on where you are in the country.

It will require a couple of mist coats, but the finish will be much better than lining paper, especially if you use a (air or airless) paint sprayer.