Description: Reader responses to painting the walls of manufactured homes.

Q: I live in a manufactured home and I would like to paint the walls. My problem is how do you get rid of those strips on the walls so it will actually look decent?

A: First wash the walls down or sand them lightly to remove grime buildup. Then prime with Binz or Kliz which are stain blocking primers, it's more expensive but worth it. There won't be any bleed thru from the wallpaper, and you can have the primer tinted to help mask the color underneath. The primer seems to be a little thicker than regular paint and helps even out the surface. When it's dry, apply your top coat.

The other thing you could do is after prepping your walls, sand lightly, and apply a thin coat of spackle or texturing plaster, you can add paint to it or paint it afterward. If you do a smooth application it's like plastered walls, if you do a rough trowelled application it looks like venetian plaster. Check out a book on faux wall finishes in your local library for more on this. Also, you could check on HGTV's Decorating Cents show and search for wall finishes. They did a show about a kitchen that used the venetian plaster method and they had dribbled on 3 colors of paint and rolled it onto the walls with a regular paint roller. It looked fantastic!

Decorating with Sponge Painting
Softening Your Walls with Color Wash
Decorating Walls with Stencils