Argued with my dad for 6 months about painting a room...

I was convinced you could just paint over old wallpaper if you used enough primer. My dad kept saying no, you gotta strip it first. After 6 months of him being right and me scraping wallpaper for 3 weekends straight, I finally gave in. He was right all along and I wasted so much time being stubborn. Has anyone else had a family debate that ate up way more time than it should have?

3 comments

3 Comments

corablack1mo ago

Six months? Man, that's a long time to fight about wallpaper... did he make you scrape it all off in front of him as proof or did he just hand you the scraper one day with that look? My dad had that same stubborn streak, would never say "I told you so" out loud but you could see it in his eyes. I bet the worst part wasn't even the scraping, it was knowing he'd been right the whole time while you were knee deep in primer and regret. What made you finally cave after half a year of arguing? Was it a specific disaster with the paint bubbling up or did he just get tired of hearing about it?

betty_wells1mo ago

You have my full sympathy, @corablack, because I've been exactly there. It wasn't wallpaper in my case, it was this deep navy paint I was absolutely convinced would look amazing in our dining room. My husband, just like your dad, gave me that silent look every single time I walked past with a roller. The worst part is when you're standing there with a paintbrush at 11pm on a Thursday and you can feel them thinking "told you so" from the couch. Spencer_owens58 is right, that silent handoff of the scraper is a special kind of defeat, especially when you've been insisting for six months. For me it was the third time I had to repaint a corner that kept looking more like a bruise than a bold statement, you just finally accept the loss.

spencer_owens581mo agoMost Upvoted

Did he actually hand you the scraper without saying a word? That's brutal. My dad did the same thing with a stubborn paint color I picked for the living room - watched me roll three coats before finally saying "you know that's gonna look orange in the afternoon light." Took me two more weeks but he was dead right.