Identify Your Texture Before You Start
Not all textures fight back equally, so your first job is identification. Orange peel looks like citrus skin — fine, shallow bumps that skim coat easily. Knockdown is flatter and broader, made by flattening sprayed texture with a wide knife, and it usually needs two solid coats. Slap brush and stomp textures have sharper, deeper patterns, and old popcorn (artex-style) ceilings and walls are the deepest of all, drinking in compound before they level out.
Run your palm over the wall and be honest about the depth. Light textures can sometimes be tamed with heavy sanding plus one skim coat; deep textures need a full skim-coating plan from the start. Also check the paint: glossy paint must be dulled and cleaned or compound will not bond, and any texture applied before the mid-1980s should be tested for asbestos before you sand or scrape it — if in doubt, have a sample tested professionally and do not disturb it. Planning how to smooth textured walls starts with knowing exactly what is on them.
Tools and Materials You Will Need
The core kit is simple: ready-mixed joint compound (a large tub beats bags of powder for beginners), a mud pan or hawk, drywall knives in roughly 15cm, 25cm and 30cm widths — or a skimming blade for big areas — a short-nap roller and tray for applying compound, 120-grit then 220-grit sandpaper or sanding screens, a sanding pole, and a spray bottle of water. A joint compound that sands easily is worth choosing deliberately; hard setting compounds are stronger but far less forgiving to sand.
Add preparation and protection to the list: painter’s tape, dust sheets for floors and furniture, a scraper for loose paint, sugar-soap solution for degreasing, and safety kit — a proper dust mask (FFP2 or better), eye protection and gloves. Skim coating throws up fine dust at the sanding stage, and the mask is the difference between a satisfying weekend project and two days of coughing. Seal the room’s doorway with a sheet if you can; the dust travels astonishingly far.
Step-by-Step: Skim Coating a Textured Wall
Prepare properly: move furniture out or into the middle under sheets, tape skirting and sockets, remove socket covers and light-switch plates, wash the wall with sugar soap, and scrape anything loose or flaking. Mix or stir the compound to a smooth, yoghurt-like consistency, adding a splash of water if it feels stiff — thinner compound rolls on more easily and levels better for beginners, which is the practical heart of how to smooth textured walls without professional training.
Roll a section of compound onto the wall about a metre wide, then immediately pull your widest knife or skimming blade across it at a low angle with firm, even pressure, wiping the excess back into the pan. Work top to bottom in overlapping passes and do not keep reworking an area as it starts to set — that tears the surface. Let the first coat dry fully (usually overnight), sand lightly to knock down ridges, wipe off the dust, and repeat with a second, slightly thinner coat. Most walls need two coats; deep textures may need three. Judge the wall with a raking light — a lamp held close and side-on reveals every remaining hollow honestly.
Alternatives: Sanding, Overlaying and Lining Paper
Sanding alone only works on the lightest textures and creates the worst dust of any method — you are grinding the high spots down to the low spots, which on anything deeper than orange peel takes forever and still leaves a wavy wall. A random-orbit sander with extraction helps, but treat sanding as a finishing step between coats, not a standalone strategy for most walls.
Overlaying with thin plasterboard (drywall) gives a guaranteed-flat new surface: fix 9.5mm boards over the old wall, tape the joints and finish as normal, as described in standard drywall practice. It is faster on truly dreadful walls but eats a little room depth and complicates sockets and skirting. Heavy-grade lining paper is the budget middle path — it softens mild texture under paint but will telegraph deeper patterns through. Choose by depth: skim coat for most, overlay for the worst, paper only for the mildest.
Painting and Wallpapering Over Your Smooth Wall
A freshly skimmed wall is thirsty and patchy in absorbency, so sealing decides whether your paint finish looks professional. Once the final coat is sanded and dust-free, apply a mist coat — emulsion diluted with roughly 10–20% water — or a dedicated drywall primer-sealer. This equalises suction so your topcoats dry evenly without flashing or dull patches where the compound drank more paint.
Wallpaper is where smoothing pays off most visibly. On a skimmed, sealed wall, paper hangs flat, seams disappear and peel-and-stick products actually stick — none of which is true over texture, where bumps telegraph through and adhesion fails at every high spot. If you ever plan to paper the room, that alone justifies learning how to smooth textured walls first. Give the sealer a full day to cure before hanging paper, and size the wall as the paper manufacturer directs.
Common Mistakes and Pro Tips
The classic beginner error is laying compound on too thick in one coat. Thick coats shrink, crack, slump and take forever to dry; two thin coats always beat one fat one. Close behind is sanding too early — compound that feels dry on the surface can still be damp underneath, and sanding it clogs paper and tears the finish. If the colour still shows darker patches, it is not ready.
Work in raking light from the start, keep your knife clean (dried lumps on the blade score lines through wet compound), and mix only what you can use comfortably. Wet-sanding the final coat with a damp sponge or fine screen cuts dust dramatically and leaves a silky finish. Finally, accept the honest truth every plasterer knows: the wall is judged at painting stage, not skimming stage — a coat of primer reveals the truth, and a quick local fill of the few remaining flaws at that point is normal professional practice, not failure.
Cost and Time: DIY vs Hiring a Plasterer
DIY skim coating is one of the cheapest transformations in decorating. Compound, knives, abrasives and dust sheets for an average room typically cost a fraction of a plasterer’s day rate, and the tools last for every future room. Your real investment is time: allow a weekend per room — a day of coating with drying gaps, then sanding and sealing — because drying time cannot be rushed without ruining the finish.
A professional plasterer will skim a room faster and flatter, and for whole houses, ceilings, or walls in poor structural repair, hiring in is money well spent. But for one or two rooms with sound but dated texture, DIY is entirely realistic and deeply satisfying. That cost-versus-time maths is why so many homeowners decide to learn how to smooth textured walls themselves — the skill transfers to every room you will ever decorate.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can you skim coat over any textured wall?
Almost any sound texture can be skim coated once it is clean, stable and properly keyed — glossy paint dulled, loose areas removed. The exceptions are damaged, damp or suspect pre-1980s textures, which should be tested for asbestos and dealt with professionally before any coating or sanding.
How many coats does it take to smooth a textured wall?
Two coats handle most orange peel and knockdown textures. Deep slap-brush, stomp or popcorn textures often need three thinner coats. Judge by raking light after each sanded coat rather than fixing a number in advance.
Do I need to remove the texture first?
Usually not. Skim coating fills over texture rather than removing it, which is faster, less dusty and avoids disturbing old materials. Removal (scraping or steaming) is only needed where the texture is loose, failing or contaminated.
How long does skim coating take to dry between coats?
With ready-mixed compound in a normally heated room, allow roughly 24 hours per coat to be safe. Thin coats in warm, ventilated rooms dry faster; thick coats and cold rooms take longer. Sanding too early ruins the finish, so patience pays.
Can I wallpaper straight after smoothing?
Yes — that is one of the main reasons to smooth. Let the final coat dry fully, seal the wall with a mist coat or primer-sealer, allow it to cure, then hang paper normally for flat seams and reliable adhesion.
Is skim coating messy for a beginner?
The coating itself is tidy; the mess comes from sanding. Sheet everything, seal the doorway, wear a proper mask, and consider wet-sanding the final coat to cut airborne dust right down. A sander attached to a vacuum makes the biggest difference of all.
Conclusion
Smoothing a textured wall is a methodical job, not a mysterious trade secret: identify the texture, prepare and degrease properly, roll on thin coats, sand lightly between them, and seal before you decorate. Two patient coats will quietly transform a dated room into a clean, modern space that paints beautifully and takes wallpaper perfectly. Take your time, work in good light, and how to smooth textured walls becomes a skill you will reuse in every home you live in.
If the walls are part of a bigger refresh, the floor usually needs the same attention — our guide to how to cut laminate flooring shows you how to get clean, chip-free cuts for a finish that matches your new walls. For more step-by-step home improvement guides, keep exploring Pogeo — and when the laminate comes out, start with how to cut laminate flooring for a professional result.