Wallpaper Gods

Like everyone from this decade, I hate wallpaper. There, I said it.

Thankfully our house came with very few papered walls when we bought it, but I am just now getting around to removing them.

Our kitchen and master bathroom have wallpaper boarders around the top of the walls, and our formal living/dining room had two "accent" walls with textured wallpaper. (See right.) Since we don't use our formal living/dining space very much I decided to start there.

I was super lucky... either this was really quality wallpaper (in it's day), or the wallpaper gods were in my favor. It peeled off so much easier than I expected! 

First, you want to pull off just the top "face" of the wallpaper. Let me explain...

You know how you try to pull off a price tag sticker, and just the top layer peels off, leaving the glue and a fuzzy layer of paper? Exactly like that: you actually WANT the glue and fuzzy later to stay on the wall and just peel the facing off.

I tried to get a picture of the face, then the glue/fuzzy layer that I am pinching, and the wall behind.

If you try to peel off the glue/fuzzy layer while it is dry, it will take some of the drywall with it. (See picture to the right.)

Yeah, I learned that one the hard way.

As much as you want to pick at it, just leave it alone!

So carefully peeling just the top layer off, I was expecting just small bits to tear off, but because this wallpaper was so thick and textured, it came off in one entire sheet! Starting at the bottom, I oh so carefully peeled the top surface from the glue/fuzzy layer, slowly peeling all the way to the ceiling. I couldn't believe it came off all in one sheet! (I only wish I had a picture!)

I tried to take pictures showing one strip (floor to ceiling) removed, but it is tough to see in photos with that light.

So that left me with a fuzzy wall... now what?

Well, as seen before, you can't peel at it while it is dry, so you need to wet it down.

First tape-off your baseboards and protect the carpet with plastic. This is a must, because water will be dripping down the walls.

After some searching online, numerous posts suggested adding fabric softener to hot water and spraying the mixture on the wall. 

I don't use fabric softener, so I bought the cheapest big bottle I could find. 

In a spray bottle I filled about 1/4 to 1/3 with fabric softener and the rest with hot water, but I soon found out that I didn't need that much fabric softener. I ended up using about half of what is shown in the picture.

So, with my hot water / fabric softener spray in hand, I tested it out on a small patch of the fuzzy wall. I sprayed it on liberally (hence the plastic on the floor) and waited. I waited about 5-10 minutes. The darker, bottom part of the wall is the wet part, soaking in and softening the glue.

Once again, I expected to have to scrape, scrape, scrape little bits off the wall. I even got my steam mop out to see if that would help along with the soaking.

But again, the wallpaper gods were with me! The glue/fuzzy layer also came right off in sheets!

I got so excited, and Dear Husband (DH) had no clue why I was so ecstatic. Even after I explained, I don't think he appreciated the enormity of my discovery/luck.

He was kind enough to get a picture of me testing out the wet glue layer. (Can we stop a minute and appreciate how good my hair looks in that picture!? I NEVER have good hair days! Thank you DH for capturing it on film!)

Here are the walls with all the wallpaper removed for one vertical strip. I was still working on the rest of the walls in these pictures.

Unfortunately, that is where my luck ran out.

After getting all the paper off, I realized the wall was still a little tacky and shiny.

There was a thin layer of the glue solution left on the wall itself. Bummer.

I have tried out a couple of solutions, but nothing has proven groundbreaking so far. Looks like I am in for a lot of wall-scrubbing with ole' fashion elbow grease.

Anyone have suggestions other than fabric softener, dish soap, or TSP?