Wallpaper Removal

Often when you move into a new apartment or house, there is something décor wise that you don’t like. We have all been there, walking into a room and asking yourself, “What were they thinking?” Paint is easy enough to fix: just paint over it. A slightly more complicated problem is wallpaper. While pretty, wallpaper that has been plastered on a wall for a long period of time gets ripped, scuffed, and eventually begins to peel. What to do with the unattractive vegetable print wallpaper in the kitchen? You can do one of two things. If the wallpaper is not textured you can simply paint over it and hope for the best. This is better to do in bedrooms or living rooms where there is little chance of the wallpaper peeling up from steam like you might find in a bathroom or kitchen. If you have wallpaper in a bathroom or kitchen, paint just isn’t enough. In situations like these, there is a simple but admittedly tedious way to get it off the walls. Take a bucket, fill it with water, and mix vinegar into it liberally. Buy a roll of brown paper towels and soak washcloth-sized pieces in the solution. Afterwards, apply the paper towel pieces to the wallpaper and give it a good soaking. Once it is wet, take a paint scraper and start scraping. Hopefully the wallpaper will peel off in sheets. If not, it will take ten times as long but will eventually all come off. Yes it will smell awful and you will probably need to scrub it after to get rid of the smell, but it’s better than vegetable wall paper! A few other alternatives to using vinegar are acetone nail polish, paint thinner, or any other solution that will dissolve glue. I promise that none of them will smell good though…!       Photo Courtesy of: Whistling in the Dark