Hi,

I'm completely redecorating a room in my hundred year-old flat. The walls
are old horse-hair plaster and were originally covered in wallpaper. I want
to get the wall as smooth as possible for painting.

After removing the wallpaper with a steamer, and clearing up the leftover
paste, I filled and sanded repairs on about 20% of the wall. I thought this
was adequate, as the wall appeared pretty level.

However, after priming and putting on two coats of white emulsion, the wall
surface looks pretty bad in daylight. Most of the repairs are individually
not too bad, but the overall effect makes the wall look shoddy. Under
artificial light (which I painted under), it's not bad at all. It also seems
as though when the room was last decorated, the intention was to wallpaper
and the walls weren't skimmed, as the unblemished areas aren't too great
either.

What are my options to get the smooth finish that plaster deserves? I'm
thinking of taking an orbital sander to it, but after hand-sanding on a
sample area, it looks like that'll be messy and a lot of work. I've also
tried a diy skim with caulk where required to smooth bits out, which was not
bad, but a lot of work and won't be suitable for all parts of it. Another
option would be to go with painting over backing paper, which looks
relatively easy & cheap.

I could alternatively reskim the walls, but I don't want to spend a large
amount of money on it. The room is approximately 3x4 meters, height 3
meters, does anyone know an approximate cost of getting it skimmed? Would
the new paint need stripped off first? Skipping the door-wall might be an
option, as I'm fitting wardrobes that'll use the wall as their back, so the
finish isn't essential here.

Any advice would be welcome! I passed the "wish I hadn't started" stage some
time ago... ;-)


Thanks in advance,

Fraser

PS thanks for the previous discussions, google groops has been great in
getting me this far. I'm a total beginner at this stuff!