Removing 40 Year Old Wallpaper
Wallpaper removal has never been a very exciting topic to most people. Who gets all giddy when they get to spend hours scouring and squirting and scraping super-glued bits off their wall? Not me. Maybe an arm workout enthusiast? You certainly do get an arm workout. One of those I-can’t-even-lift-my-arms-to-wash-my-hair type pains. Yikes. But…it was a necessary evil that we had put off for far too long. So one day, about a month ago, we got really tired of our dusty rose wallpaper border, and decided…it was time.
But first- I haven’t shared this either- we ripped up all the carpet in our bedrooms and installed our laminate floor!!!!!! We now have beautiful laminate floor everywhere except our bathrooms, one hall closet and a room closet. (We will get to those last two later? Someday?) I had photos, but my computer died…yup, they are gone for now. Hoping to recover them, but for now, see these photos of Scott hauling away our DISGUSTING dusty rose carpet from our master bedroom. SO GROSS. Thank goodness it’s gone!! You can see our new floors in some of the photos down below.
I had done a lot of research on how to remove wall paper. Some people swear by wet warm rags and sprays of vinegar, and some by chemicals…we had no success with either of those methods when we did our kitchen, and I’ll tell you all a secret…in the end drywall spray and texture just went right on top of the old wallpaper. Shhhh.
So when it came to our room, I decided to go with the advice of a seasoned Home Depot worker and purchased this paper-scoring tool specifically made for wallpaper removal, along with this wallpaper removal fluid. I decided to tackle it on a Friday night (see: late 20s vs early 20s) and stayed up until 2am. NO JOKE. I am so hardcore. The process was pretty straightforward. Scour the wallpaper with the scoring tool- it basically puts a ton of tiny holes in it to help the fluid soak in better. Then I dipped a sponge in the mixture (WEAR GLOVES!!!!!!!!) and put a thick coat on the wall.
I worked in 2 foot sections- scouring and coating with the sponge, then continued all the way down one wall. When I got to the end of the wall, I went back to the beginning of the wall, and began scraping and pulling off paper. Usually it came off in annoying, tiny shreds like this…
But a few times I got lucky and got a big long one like this:
Victory! Then I would have to repeat the entire process on that same wall to get any straggler paper remaining-usually 2-3 rounds per wall. Then the next wall 2-3 times. Then the next. Why does a room have to have four whole walls?!? If you are wondering about the paint issue in our room and why we have 23940 paint swatches on our walls for the past 16 months- see this and this post)
Ya’ll…my arms. I will be the first to admit I have horrible upper body strength, but just holding my arms up for 4 hours….omg. Best worst arm workout of all time.
If you are lucky you can recruit a handsome someone to come help you.
At the end of the night, when we were finally done, I kept saying over and over, “I can’t believe how big and tall our room looks!” I had figured the result would be minimal but I was really, really impressed.
At the end of the night, with our bed and all other belongings covered in plastic wrap so we could paint the next day, I fell into our guest bed like this.
Yup, totally put that on the internet. Keeping the realities of home reno real. Word. 😛
Next up is PAINT. BEGONE dusty rose ceiling!!! Join your wallpaper scrapped friends in the land of the dead!! BOOOO!!! 😀
Tania Griffis is an accomplished writer, blogger, and interior designer with a Journalism degree from the University of Oklahoma. She started her popular blog, Run to Radiance, in 2011, demonstrating her design expertise through the personal remodeling of six houses to millions of readers across the globe.
Tania also owns The Creative Wheelhouse, a respected ghostwriting agency for bloggers, further showcasing her talent for creating engaging and informative content.
hehe, that wall paper gave me flashbacks to old houses and made me giggle. can’t wait to see what you do to the room next 🙂
I just keep thinking…there’s no where to go but up, right? 🙂
Haha love this post. That wallpaper was totally stylish, don’t know why you got rid of it. 😉
It would have gone great with your 70s tile! We should start a shop for cast off period pieces. Or a museum. 🙂
Good job on the wall paper removal. I think there should be a rule that whoever puts it up must take it down. I see from the test paint colors that the room is going to look so much more stylish once painted.
Thanks Char! i agree- we need to make that a law or something! I think anything is better then beige and dusty rose… 😛
Ahh, I have so much wallpaper to remove from our kitchen – wish me luck! Your room looks much better without that wallpaper border!
Brynne you can do it girl! You’ve tackled all kinds of other crazy projects…go girl! 🙂 Just think of your arms and how sculpted they will be after! 😛
Thank you for the post. We are about to rip very old wallpaper that our cats helped redecorate with their own claws.
Did you have many holes and dents to patch? If so, what products or tips would you recommend?
Again thanks.
Hi Elle! Hah, got to love those helpful animals! 🙂 They tried, right? We didn’t have many holes to repair at all, but the few we did we just used drywall spackle to fill in the holes. Hope that helps! 🙂