I’ve asked many people and the answer is usually negative. Is there a way to hang wallpaper on a wall covered with ceramic tiles?
My problem is I don’t want to remove the tiles permanently. (Anne Quinn, Ranelagh)

That is a tricky question indeed. I would have thought the best thing to do would be to simple remove the tiles and be done with it, and when the wall was smoothed down to hang your wallpaper in the normal way. 

However, you must have your own good reason for not wanting to remove the tiles, so here’s a plan that should allow you do the job. This question presented a real challenge, so I did a test to be sure my answer was fairly reliable. My findings are reflected in the following reply to your question.

  1. First wash the entire wall with Sugar Soap, a great cleaning liquid you can pick up in most DIY paint outlets. Rinse all traces of the sugar soap with clean warm water and cloth.
  2. After the surface has dried fully, apply our old friend E. S. P all over the tiles and grout and follow the maker's directions, after about 10 minutes, wipe off gently with another clean dry lint-free cloth. At this point you must leave the “E. S. P.’d” surface to dry and cure for at least 90 minutes at normal room temperature.
  3. Now, get your wallpaper pasted up and apply it in the normal way. That’s what I did, and believe it or not as the saying goes, it actually worked.

To push it to the limit, I even applied two coats of emulsion on top of the wallpaper after a few days and it stayed put, and no bubbles. So, Anne, that appears to be your answer. By the way, when and if you want to remove the paper again and return to tiles, just strip the paper in the normal way and you can clean off any traces of E S P with thinners etc.

Another idea you could consider would be to paint the tiles, and in that instance, you could use the E S P also to provide a grip for your paint. You can pick up the E S P at practically all the main DIY and paint outlets. Good luck with your project.