Walls with different textures - don’t want to wallpaper, wanted to paint

[Ldecs]

Hopefully someone has a miraculous cure for me on this one

No easy task, but I was finally able to get all of the wallpaper off the walls of my dh. I’ve now discovered that there are three or four different types of interior walls. Some are literally slats of wood, some are a thick textured rough thing, and some are smooth as a baby’s butt. 

Problem is...I wasn’t planning on using any wallpaper, and wanted to paint each room. I’ve looked thru the forums and found several suggestions...”false” walls of poster board, watercolor paper...wallpaper liner...spackle...gesso...

I like the idea of the false walls of poster board, as they’d be lot easier to paint outside the house, but since it’s all put together (it’s a rehab of an old Duracraft VS800) it seems impossible to get a template made of the walls. Especially in the turret rooms. If I paint gesso all over the whole thing, will it really smooth out the walls?

What would you all do? I’m attaching a pic that shows the wall surfaces. 

Edited October 21, 2018 by Ldecs
Typo

[Ldecs]

EDIT: I’m planning on putting up crown moulding and baseboards too, in case that matters. Thanks!

[Sable]

Drywall compound and a sponge sander and all done outdoors. 

[KathieB]

25 minutes ago, Sable said:

Drywall compound and a sponge sander and all done outdoors. 

I agree. Gesso won't do the job on the rougher texture or the slat walls. The sanded drywall compound will leave a smooth surface very much like plaster in a real life house. The sanding will create a lot of plaster dust, so Sable's suggestion to do it outdoors is a good one.

If some walls are really smooth, you may not have to do anything to them. And other walls may be easy enough to make templates. I think you'll have to make a room-by-room, wall-by-wall decision as to how to solve the problem meet the challenge. 

[havanaholly]

That first wall looks like the backside of a very old hunk of Melamine.  Once you have given all the walls that need it the drywall "mud" treatment you're good to go with paint or wallpaper or whatever your heart desires.  You can glue your baseboards and crown moldings into place after painting them, too.

[Soapz]

I make the templates by taking a sheet of paper, line it up with one straight edge (usually floor) and fold edges in. If that is not enough, I take paper strips to fill out any missing corners and tape them. At some point you have a template of the wall and can transfer it to the mat board.

[Soapz]

Also, I just spent an hour to check out chalk and milk paints. They adhere to just about every surface. This might be something worth checking out for the fabric walls - I've looked at projects where people painted upholstery and used it without the paint flaking off.

[Sable]

Another option, but would require a lot of prep work would be to:

1) Tape off and or apply plastic to every surface not to be painted.

2) Take the house outside

3) Spray paint all the walls with a stone textured spray paint. https://www.rustoleum.com/product-catalog/consumer-brands/american-accents/stone-spray/

[Qubanqtee]

I made a template of the walls for my Duracraft SF555 using plain paper and folding in the sides, then I transferred that to matte board and refit and then made the final trims to fit the wall and glued them in.  On others I simply used sparkle and then sanded smooth and painted with acrylic....it's not an easy task BUT if you're determined not to use wallpaper it will be worth it.

Another option to consider might be using plain whit wallpaper that is paintable...it's available at Home Depot and it would certainly resolve your issue a little quicker....but only a little....hope that helps.