There are some DIY jobs that totally stink! I mean, we love DIYing and there are lots of fun projects, but some of them make me want to jab my eyes out! Stripping wallpaper used to be one of those jobs, but it's not anymore thanks to having the perfect removal secret!
When we arrived at Teri's house to start her makeover we knew that this wallpaper was one of the first jobs we had to tackle. It was giving me flashbacks of when I moved into our very first home. Every single room on the first floor was wallpapered- it took us forever to remove because we didn't know how to do it right!!
Ready for our secret recipe???
Fabric softener and Water! That's all! So we used roughly one part fabric softener to two parts water mix it right in the sprayer and you're good to go!
Here's how we tackle the job…
#1- Peel off as much of the outer layer as possible. Sometimes wallpaper, especially the old stuff, has a plastic-like outer layer. You'll want to try and peel that off by hand first. That way, the liquid solution can soak into the paper better. Sometimes using a spackle knife helps too.
See here how the"beautiful" shiny palm tree part still remains… it almost looks like wall next to it, but don't be tricked- it's the paper and glue part of the wallpaper. You've gotta get that off too!
#2 Spray the wall with your fabric softener solution and scrape it off. Once the exterior layer is off, spray the wall with your solution, working in 3x3 sections. It's drippy and messy, so a drop cloth is probably a good idea. Basically you spray the wall really well- it should saturate the paper. Give it a minute or two to soak in, and then start scraping with your spackle knife. It should peel right off. If you have a stubborn spot, re-spray and give it a few minutes.
The best part of this process is that is smells amazing and we ended up with really soft hands! lol.
After we used our super simple process for removing the wallpaper, we were able to stencil on this beauty! Doesn't it look SO much better than the palm trees??
To check out the rest of this room, click HERE. To watch this full episode of Knock It Off, click HERE
So do tell, have you ever had to remove wallpaper? Got any good nightmarish stories?
