Terri: I worked with a professional wall paperer for years and I know if you have to paint over wall paper you make sure the seams are tight, then you use a light sand paper to sand the edges of the seams. You might want to use a primer first especially if the wall paper is dark. I recently moved into a town home and the people before me painted over the wall paper and it looks horrible. You can see the seams. Of course I do not know how much prep work went into the paint job first.