Painting - Painting over textured walls

We are wanting to patch up some cracks in the drywall and then hoping to paint the walls in our new home. The walls are textured (not sure of technical term for the method that was used.) Is there a way to get rid of textured walls outside of putting up new drywall? If not, then when we repaint how will repaired areas blend in?

Thanks for any help.
Susan

To go back to smooth walls or re-texturing, you will need to skim out the walls with drywall compound (sanding with a rough grit sandpaper can help prior to skimming). I would suggest a pro do this unless you are pretty well aquainted with mud tools. Patching the cracked area's require taping the cracks and 2 beds of compound, when dry, sanding the patches and I always feather the new patch into the existing texture with a wet sponge as to not create lines in the new patch, retexturing to match, prime and paint. For repairing cracks and re-matching the texture I also recomend a pro to do for you, these are technics not easily aquired and it is best to get a pro to do it then to try yourself and have someone come in and fix it which may end up costing more than if it was left untouched.

Hope this helps.