Wallpaper Removal

We lucked out. As I pointed out here, Gwyn's room still had the border up. I am slightly motivated to get stuff done around the house (I am hanging pictures, people!!!!) and I want to decorate her room, so this was the next step.

This is what the room looked like. Not great.

The trim never bothered me when it had matching decorations around the room. But I find it so ugly now.

When we bought the wallpaper, it said that it was easy removal. It was made to be so easy to remove that it really didn't stay up all the way for the 5 years we had it up.

There were many places where it was already peeling off.

 So I read that the best way to remove easy-off wallpaper was with a dryer. Just heat it up and peel it off. I am not sure if I believed it, but I tried it. I went to a corner where I knew it was peeling, and just started pulling. Sometimes it would stick and I would try to heat it up.

This wasn't that bad. I could scratch that off. But then I just kept pulling and it came off very easily!

Just little bits stuck here and there!

Aaannnndddd then I hit this wall.

 So this is how it stayed for a week until I could come back to it. Did I mention that someone was "wrestling" in the old wallpaper?

 So this Sunday I got my gear and was ready for a fight. Here are my tools:

A bowl of warm water, a wash cloth and a scraper.

I also added a cool bag that I stuck in my pants, so that I could put the small scraps somewhere other than dropping them on the floor.

But let me go back to the scraper. It is the coolest tool. It is for scraping pots and dishes, but it was perfect for this job! I could scrape away without worry of damaging the wall. I use this to clean my stove, and counters, just basically all the time! (This is the first trip it has made out of the kitchen. If you want one for the house, I would recommend getting two, one for just the kitchen.)

So I set to work, and it was crazy easy. All I did was get the wallpaper wet and scrape it off. Then I just wiped any extra glue off the walls. This process was so easy that I would reconsider wallpaper trim again, if I ever find any I like. It was all gone in about 20 minutes. The longest part was refilling the water to keep it warm.

One wall with the trim all removed! (The other walls look the same as the other photos, minus the minute bits of trim.)

Now we get to paint her room and finish decorating. Gwyn only says that she wants "purple like my curtains." I am thinking something like these colors, with something around her bed like this. (I had seen this and wanted it, but Kevin said it was stupid. But then Gwyn saw Olive's and LOVED it. What do Daddy's know, anyway?)