Wallpaper removal… a task hated by all! While some people think wallpaper is making a design comeback, I have removed too much of it to ever have the desire to add more to this world. There are some beautiful designs out there, but I want none of it!
The walls of our 1930’s house were almost entirely covered in wallpaper at one point. Some of it had been removed from the main level before we purchased it, but the 2nd floor was still completely papered. Not only did every room have wallpaper, many walls had 2,3 and even 4 layers!
We experimented with different methods of removal including several chemicals, hand scraping and using a power sander but we found the most helpful tool to be a $20 steamer from Menards. It was a long process but room by room, the paper was removed and the glue was much easier to get off. Bonus: the steam acted as a daily facial 😛
We found varying degrees of damage to the plaster under the wallpaper as we went. The master bedroom and the room being converted to the master closet had plaster that was almost pristine. Another bedroom had many layers of peeling paint that we ended up steaming and scraping off as well. Underneath that, the plaster required some patching before it could be primed and painted.
One of the coolest surprises we found was in the larger spare bedroom that only had one layer of wallpaper. I was going along, removing the paper and feeling a bit grumpy as it was the day before Christmas Eve and I was hard at work instead of attending some holiday party and celebrating. On one wall, I started to see a few letters and numbers and hurried to remove more paper to look at the whole message. Reading it changed my whole outlook as it said “Merry XMAS and Happy New Year from Purl, Al and Walt 1974.” It had been written by former owners before they wallpapered that room and it was so cool to know they had been doing it the same time of year I was working on the place. It reminded me why I was taking this project on and how I wanted to remember each and every part of the process because this home is a piece of history and some day, I will become a part of that story as well. Though I never met those people, we share something in common: a love for this house on a hill overlooking the Illinois River.
Maybe I don’t hate wallpaper remove all that much after all…
Real Estate W/ Kate 