Painting over removed border. PIP (hopefully!)

[lust2hart]

We closed on a house in April and I've been painting.

In the entryway, the previous owner put up a wallpaper border on the drywall and then painted over it. I had no trouble getting the border off, and then I sanded the line where the paint met/went over the border.

But I guess I didn't sand well enough, because after one coat of primer and 2 of paint, it's still really obvious that there used to be a border there. I'm not sure what to do at this point - can I try sanding again? Do I try another coat of paint?

tinyurl.com/7spvx2y

Ok, so not a PIP, but a LIP.

Also, my other thought is that maybe the stripe where the border was needs its own extra paint? Because she put the border directly on the drywall and then painted over it, like maybe I need to "fill in" where the border was? I'm just...I'm not even sure what the problem even is, so I don't know how to fix it.

[mrs.jacinthe]

ooooh. I think you're going to have to sand again - really well, and probably with a power sander. I don't think there's really any other option. Personally, I'd use a coarse grit sandpaper and try to (carefully) take the paint above and below the lines down nearly to the drywall. Kinda feather it, you know? But man, that sucks.

[Susie]

Agreed. There isn't even a tiny chance that adding more paint on top of that will fix it.

Don't stop sanding until, when you run your hand over it with your eyes closed, you can't feel where the stripe was.

[hunniapple]

I agree - lots of sanding. I can't tell if there is some kind of a dip or divet in the surface of the wall from where the border was, but you might want to even it out with joint compound. Then again, lots of sanding. You will also want to prime the whole wall after you sand because the finish will be different when you paint over it than then painted finish, and you will probably be able to see the area where you put the joint compound.

[lust2hart]

Well. Darn.

LOL. Thanks y'all!

[monicad]

Is this in the middle of the wall, like halfway between the ceiling and floor? If so, you could do some board and batten or faux panels? I know that's probably more work than sanding, but just thought I'd throw it out there.

[lauree1183]

Jul 5, 2012 13:58:57 GMT -5 hunniapple said:

I agree - lots of sanding. I can't tell if there is some kind of a dip or divet in the surface of the wall from where the border was, but you might want to even it out with joint compound. Then again, lots of sanding. You will also want to prime the whole wall after you sand because the finish will be different when you paint over it than then painted finish, and you will probably be able to see the area where you put the joint compound.

Exactly this.

[emoflamingo]

Ditto moonicad as well. They painted over chair rail in our dining area. I removed it, did the joint compound and it would have worked great -- except they GLUED IT ON THE WALL so the drywall paper came off too and it was still uneven after a few days of work so I put up a new chair rail (which I liked the concept of but hated how they executed).