Today we continue our demo journey and focus on wallpaper removal. This one will be short and sweet… well actually not sweet. As there is nothing sweet about this design tool. As you will remember from Keys Please – and the Journey Begins, I have a love hate relationship with wallpaper. Well actually it is mostly a hate relationship, as I hate to remove it! But this is still an important post so you can learn how to handle this dreadful product, and sadly listen to me complain along the way. I will apologize now for this, but at least you will get an insight into my heart and soul. Oh… I think the house just started laughing at me. Well that’s not right.

Now I can agree that some wallpaper once installed can be beautiful, but does anyone ever take the removal of wallpaper into consideration at this point. No…. they leave it for the next person to purchase the house and to remove it and redesign the space.

Now wallpaper removal is difficult in most cases, but wallpaper that has been baked on for 45 years… I get afraid just thinking about it. My mother would say it isn’t that bad, but I do not think she has had the same experiences that I have had. ‘Just wet it, scrape it and it will come off easily’, she would say. But has she had to battle wallpaper as though it is fighting for its life and is not going to go willingly. I do not think so!

So today we will tackle the proper way, or at least the best way I have come up with based on all advice I have received, to remove wallpaper that is old and has latched onto a house like a parasite that cannot let go, and may take me down with it.

We have two rooms to battle. The pink room and its wallpaper trim that boarders the whole top of the room. And the bathroom that has two walls papered. Should be easy right? Oh do not underestimate this beast and how hard can it be to remove this small amount of wallpaper. Well let’s just say it took two of us three painstaking days to fight and battle this unforgiving animal. We barely got out of it alive! My husband was horrified and saddened by how much time we wasted and could have spent on more productive tasks. But enough of my battle stories. How did we do it? That is what I know you want to know.

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Bathroom Wallpaper Removal

So we start with the bathroom. I know it seems sad that we would want to remove this beautiful 70’s floral patterned wallpaper with layers of grease, grime and some substances I really do not want to even think what they may be. But it is time to bring this bathroom into current times.

Now the wallpaper removal actually started easily enough. The top vinyl layer of the wallpaper just ripped off with ease. That came down in about 10 mins. But all of the backing and glue remained behind. Now the trick to removing the glue is to get it wet before scraping. You can purchase a wall paper scorer at any hardware store. This is a device that has a wheel that is like barbed wire. You take the device and roll it all over the paper. This scores it and leaves little holes in the paper making it easier for water to penetrate the material softening it so that it can be more easily scraped.

Once scored, spray the surface down with water, and use a wet sponge to make sure the water spreads evenly and pushes into the holes and soaks beneath the layers of glue. Let it sit and soak in and then the real work begins. Take a scraper, such as a putty knife, and start scraping to remove the residual paper and glue.

In some cases it came up easily, in other places it latched on as though its life depended on it. Like there was no tomorrow. Which I guess is actually true. My upper body felt like I just left a boxing ring. After awhile carpal tunnel syndrome started to set in and I reminded myself to stop and take time for stretching so not to damage my arms and wrists. This is actually a very important lesson. It is easy to get lost in the task, but the repetitive motion can cause a lot of damage on our bodies. And I refuse to be taken down by wallpaper!

This crusade went on for 4 hours, and I only got a quarter of the wall done. I also started to notice that this wall was a plaster wall and the finish is very uneven. Is it even worth removing this? Or do we just put something else over it to hide it. I start to lean this way as I am getting tired and disheartened. So I decide a change of scenery could help. So lets move to the pink room. I mean the border removal must be easier!

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Pink Room Wallpaper Removal

So with the same approach as in the bathroom… score, wet, scrape… I start on the pink room. Oh come on…. seriously…. this room is even worse! The top vinyl layer comes off only in small pieces that are a couple of inches long. It’s like pealing skin off after a sun burn. This is time staking and painful. I wish I was a Jeannie and could just blink and have this done. At this time my husband jumps in to help. He too agrees it is the most painful tedious task so far. Maybe we are being punished for something? Some cruel joke.

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But we persevere and as mentioned three days later we are done. I do apologize for the rant… but I did forewarn you. Maybe you have some tips of the trade that you could share for our next wallpaper episode? Is there something else we could have done differently to make this easier?

Wallpaper removed – so now what?

At least now we have the pink room ready for wall prep and painting. The bathroom is another story. As mentioned the wall surface turned out to be very uneven and would take forever to patch. So it is either re-drywall or cover it. Maybe we should put up some wallpaper…. now that would be funny! But no I would not be that cruel to ourselves or future homeowners. So we decide to tile it. It will make for a beautiful focus wall and make the bathroom really high end. I actually love the idea! My husband is also on board. So I guess one more selection to do. But at least this nightmare is over.