Kitchen Question + PICS

[Anonymous]

Our cottage has come a long way since we bought it in October, and now my attention needs to be on the Kitchen.

My questions to you experienced folks are as follows.

1) The walls are not level/straight, especially where the old walls were removed.

2) There are many different surfaces on the walls. Some parts have gloss, some have bare plaster, some have emulsion paint, and some has this non water absorbant paper on it (i can't soak it or steam it off)

How do i tackle the walls? I think i would need to put battens along the wall and plane the wood until i have a level wall to hang the units on.

What about the different surfaces? I think i need to paint the room white first, but with all the different surfaces, etc surely it will look odd.

CLICK THE BELOW LINKS TO SEE MORE PICTURE

http://img85.imageshack.us/img85/9052/imgp05922er.jpg

http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/1599/imgp05932vc.jpg

http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/7796/imgp05948hz.jpg

http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/53/imgp05957qm.jpg

http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/1402/imgp05968qt.jpg

http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/3893/imgp05972gr.jpg

 

[Anonymous]

Appologies, it appears the links do not work, you may have to copy and paste them into your internet browsers. Sorry.

 

[Anonymous]

Can you not have the walls skimmed to give you a consistent surface? If not then what we did in our kitchen (and indeed pretty much everywhere around the house) was put up 1000 or 1200 gauge lining paper. Once painted it looks like a plain plastered wall but it hides a multitude of sins. Ours is in an Edwardian house, however, and depending upon the age of your cottage a different approach may be needed to preserve the integrity of the original construction.

http://www.forumtowers.com

 

[Anonymous]

Hello. My worry would be seeing the joints in the paper, and so spoiling the look.

Re-skimming the walls would cost alot of money, of which we don' have.

Anyone else with any suggestions?

 

[Anonymous]

Properly hung you won't see the joins. If you do have a small gap between strips then you can apply filler and lightly sand it down (heavy gauge lining paper is very forgiving!). If you can't afford to get the place skimmed then what have you got to lose? You could experiment in one area first and see what you think of the finished look. The worst that will happen is that you end up stripping it off and have shelled out for a couple of rolls of paper and a packet of paste.

http://www.forumtowers.com