adventures in wallpaper removal

I like wallpaper. I do. Though my preference is for Arts and Crafts style wallpaper applied with restraint. Just like color. Both should not be treated as background.

My first words when entering our new Virginia home? “That wallpaper has to go.” My husband and realtor laughed.

If the wallpaper flowed together through the house, I could live with it. But it doesn’t. There’s no rhyme or reason. None. Zip. Zero. Nada. It’s just a confused mess.

We have 8 rooms with wallpaper. With wallpaper removal costing about $1 to $2 per square foot, I think it’s not an exaggeration to say the entire job could cost $10,000 to $15,000. Then there’s the cost of repairing damage depending on how hard it is to remove the wallpaper.

Given the economy, the lack of well-paying jobs in our area, the cost of gas, and 2 dogs to supervise (another post), I decided to tackle the wallpaper. With any luck, the job wouldn’t be hard. I could do it in my own timeframe without extra people in the house and the stress of managing the dogs.

I started this week and no, it wasn’t hard. I decided to work on the first floor powder room. The room is small plus I could close the door if needed. I started out scoring the wall and spraying a mixture of fabric softener and water. Not much happened.

I decided to try steam. My hand held clothes steamer did nothing. I suspect it’s broken. However the bigger clothes steamer worked. I found peeling off the top pattern layer and steaming the bottom was the way to go.

About an hour’s worth of work that included fumbling around to figure out what would work produced a fairly clean expanse of wall. Not much glue remains though I’ll wipe the wall with water and vinegar before fixing it.

Since the clothing steamer is so small, my husband and I decided to purchase a wallpaper steamer for $70. It comes with a plate about the size of a piece of paper, allowing me to steam a larger area more efficiently. I’m going to use the clothing steamer in the tight spots since it has a smaller head. I didn’t think it was worth spending an additional $75 for accessories we wouldn’t need.

This will be the third decorating project in our new home. Above is my youngest son’s room which he wanted to be purple. We kept the shades but removed the curtains. I replaced them with dark blue velvet ones from IKEA.

The first project completed within weeks of moving in was painting our bedroom. I used the same color from our old bedroom.

We left the cathedral ceiling alone since it was in good shape. Eventually I will brighten the woodwork with a fresh coat of high gloss white.

I didn’t realize how much the wallpaper wore me down until I started to remove it. Such a basic change with a huge impact.