Wallpaper or Paint: How to Decide
What each one is actually better at, what the difference costs over ten years, which goes on first when you are doing both, and why most good rooms use both
Paint is cheaper to start, easier to change and better for large or awkward areas. Wallpaper gives a room a character that paint cannot, hides minor wall imperfections better, and lasts considerably longer before it needs redoing. Most rooms end up wanting both, and if you are doing both, the ceiling and woodwork go first, then the paper.
Side by side
| Wallpaper | Paint | |
|---|---|---|
| Initial cost | Higher | Lower |
| Cost over ten years | Comparable, since it is redone far less often | Comparable, since it is repainted more often |
| Preparation needed | Wall must be clean, flat and in good order | Wall must be clean, flat and in good order |
| Hides minor imperfections | Better, especially a textured paper | Shows them, especially in a sheen finish |
| Hides texture | No | No |
| Awkward areas | Slower | Quicker |
| Time to redo | Rarely, if ever | Every few years |
| Changing your mind | Harder | Easy |
| Effect | Pattern, depth, character | Colour and light |
Where paint wins
- Ceilings and woodwork. Almost always.
- Rooms full of obstacles. A utility room, a fitted study, a kitchen wall full of units.
- Wet areas where nothing else will do: inside a shower enclosure, behind a hob.
- When you genuinely do not know what you want yet. Paint is a two-hour decision to reverse.
- Rented homes where redecorating in the landlord's colour at the end is the condition of decorating at all, though removable paper is an alternative.
Where wallpaper wins
- A room that needs character rather than colour. A pattern does something to a room that no paint colour does.
- Older, slightly imperfect walls, where a textured paper is far kinder than a flat sheen.
- Small rooms you want to feel enveloping. A cloakroom, a snug, a hallway.
- A single feature wall where one surface is meant to hold the room.
- Longevity. A well-hung paper on a wall in good order stays looking well for many years, where a painted wall in a busy room starts asking to be redone after three or four.
The cost question, honestly
Paint is cheaper on the day. Over the life of a wall the gap narrows a great deal, because painted walls in used rooms get repainted and papered ones generally do not.
It is worth being straightforward, though: a made-to-order wallpaper is a considered purchase, and nobody should pretend it is the budget option. The argument for it is not that it is cheaper. It is that you choose it once, in a colourway that was made for your room, and then leave it alone.
Which goes first?
If you are doing both in the same room:
- Ceiling first.
- Woodwork next. Skirtings, architraves, doors, panelling. Get the messy work out of the way while a splash on the wall does not matter.
- Then the wallpaper, trimmed neatly down onto finished woodwork.
The exception is painting a wall out to a neutral base before papering it. That has to happen first, and then needs thirty days to cure before the paper goes on.
Using both together
The most successful rooms usually do:
- Paper above panelling or a dado rail, paint below.
- One papered wall, the rest painted in a colour drawn from the design.
- Paper the chimney breast, paint the alcoves, which reads better than the reverse.
- Paper the stairwell, paint the hall and landing.
- Paper the ceiling, paint the walls.
Because a design can be recoloured, pulling a paint colour out of the paper is straightforward, and the relationship is deliberate rather than approximate.
Is wallpaper better than paint?
Not better. Different. Paint gives colour and is easy to change; wallpaper gives pattern and depth and lasts far longer before it needs redoing.
Is wallpaper more expensive than paint?
Higher initially. Over ten years the difference narrows because papered walls are redone far less often.
Do you paint or wallpaper first?
Ceiling, then woodwork, then wallpaper. Unless you are painting the wall itself to a neutral base first, which needs thirty days to cure before papering.
Does wallpaper hide bad walls better than paint?
Minor imperfections, yes, especially a textured paper. Actual texture, no. Neither hides that.
Can I paint over wallpaper?
We would not recommend it. Paint soaks into the paper, swells it and lifts the seams, and it makes removal much harder later.
Can I use both in one room?
Yes, and most well-decorated rooms do: paper above panelling, or one papered wall with the rest painted in a colour taken from the design.
