Excuse my language, but that’s really how I feel about wallpaper. Or rather, old wallpaper. I swoon over the look of beautifully placed modern wallpaper, but after my little (err, big) bout with old wallpaper this weekend, I can confidently tell you that it really does stink. Here’s the scenario/before photo…
Our new master bedroom is covered in pink flowery wallpaper. It’s surely not the look we are going for, so my Mom and my Grandma and I set out to rid the room of flowers. We came armed with these items:
We scoured the wall (with the tool above), covered it with DIF gel, and then scrapped our little hearts out. The problem was, the wallpaper came off in tiny pieces. Like itty bitty pieces. After a half hour of scraping, we realized that this job was going to take a long, long time. We also uncovered what our contractor likes to call a “worst case scenario” wallpaper project. More than 50 years ago, the wallpaper was glued directly to the untextured sheet rock, leaving a really gross wall behind the really gross wallpaper. After nearly 2 hours of work (x3 people working) this was as far as we got. Tear!
We felt discouraged and frustrated. We stepped away from the wallpaper and drove straight to happy hour. It was how that kind of a project should end – with a stiff drink.
After taking a week to recover from this unscuccessful project, I did a little research, and we’ve decided to go a route that I would have never guessed….we are going to PAINT over the wallpaper. Can you believe it? We’ve checked withour contractor and a few other trusted sources, and this seemed to be our best option. So, we’ll load up on KILZ interior oil-based primer, and go to work.
Let’s hope this story has a happy ending, otherwise, things might get ugly. More to come from me on this project, but if you guys have any wallpaper tips for me, bring them on!
