Does it make sense to wallpaper before decorating or is it enough to just skim and paint?

Its either me or,Your question seems to contradict itself. I will have a guess, if you are asking do you hang paper before painting, I would do the painting first. You then say is it alright to skim and paint, so I take it the background isnt very good, then according to the condition, I will guess again, if its sound but poor uneven finish, then clean your walls, pva and 2 coat skim, leave to dry out then apply watered down emulsion and mist coat, then couple more coats of neat paint, you wont need to paper then. As for what type of wall paper, its your choice as you have to live with it. You say that some movement is expected, I would be more concerned about getting this rectified before carrying out any decorating. If its that bad you may need a structural engineer.

At a guess I would ask how bad are the walls?? Lining paper will cover up a large amount of defects in the wall and being an old cottage and if paper is what you choose then pick a high grade lining paper. However sometimes it not always necassary to line walls...just makes a long job longer. We quite often apply a white paint base coat to walls then will use "easifill" to feather out bad area's in the wall, then sand, the white paint will highlight any bad area's Hope this will help! Tim

If you intend to skim plaster the walls it wouldn't be necessary to paper them before painting. You would need to miscoat/prime the walls after plastering ( using a diluted paint solution or PVA solution) Alternatively some paints are now made specifically to go straight on to fresh plaster. If you wanted to paper the walls instead a thick grade lining paper (at least 1000g , however this is dependent on the state of the walls in which case thicker >1200g) would be sufficient. If there is movement in your walls, and i assume cracks, these would need 'chasing' and filling with interior filler prior to hanging paper. If not the movement will cause creases in your paper which would show through your paintwork.

hi ..it depends what kind of finish you get with your plasterer ..if his a decent plasterer{like myself} you should be able to paint straight on to the plaster{one mist coat and 2 finish coats of emulsion}....as long as the plasterer tapes up all cracks and removes all blown plaster you should be okay ..cant see the point of paying out to have walls skimmed then covering it with paper ...all the best and good luck

For old houses with old walls I think is worth more to wallpaper it becose the walls will allways move a bit and make cracks and plaster or skim will not stop to see cracks when walls move a bit as does the wallpaper, but for quet new houses and walls I think is worth more to skim it Chris