How to Remove Wallpaper

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Hello friends! I am stepping away from the Craft Room Challenge for a bit to give you an update on my baby girl’s bedroom.

As you know we moved into this house early Fall of last year. While I love many things about this house, you would agree that the wallpaper in my little girl’s room was a hot mess. I couldn’t even let her sleep in it while the wallpaper was up.

I am glad to say now that we have removed it and it’s well on its way to becoming a gorgeous space. This was my first time removing wallpaper and I can only hope it will be my last. The stuff is terrible!

So I thought I would share the steps I took in order to remove it so that you don’t run into the same headaches I did (in case you may be finding yourself facing hideous wallpaper too ?).

Sherwin Williams and I partnered in order to you bring this tutorial. All opinions expressed are my own.

Here is what you need:

Wallpaper Scoring Tool
Wallpaper 4-inch Scraper Tool
DIF Concentrate Wallpaper Remover
A Small Bucket
Large Sponge
ScotchBlue Pre-Taped Painter’s Plastic
ProBlock Oil Based Primer

Just a quick reminder of how the room used to look like…

STEP 1-

Score the walls with the scoring tool. Make sure to move in a circular motion and get as many holes in the wallpaper as you can.

STEP 2-

Be sure to protect your floors with ScotchBlue Pre-Taped Painter’s Plastic. Then dilute and apply the DIF wallpaper remover according to the instructions. We chose to use a large sponge to apply to the walls instead of a sprayer .

*Make sure to use this in a well-ventilated area. It does have a strong cleaning smell.

Wait about 15 minutes, then using the scraping tool start removing the wallpaper at the seams. You will see the solution penetrate and start lifting the wallpaper.

It should come out completely, if not, you can re-soak what doesn’t come off and continue removing it with the scraper.

STEP 3 –

Once all of the wallpaper is removed, clean the walls with soap and water. And give them a light sanding to make sure they are smooth. Patch any gouges or minor holes with spackling paste, then sand those areas smooth as well.

STEP 4 (and the most important step of all)–

Coat the walls with one layer of ProBlock Oil-Based Primer to seal the walls.

This is important because if you do not do this and then begin applying your paint, the paint will reactivate the water based glue on the wall left over from the wallpaper. You can clean and sand the walls, but no matter how much you do it, it will still have glue. And your paint will literally start coming off the walls.

Trust me, I know….

So save yourself the headache and make sure you prime.

STEP 5 –

Then finally paint your walls your desired color. I will be doing a special accent wall in the room which is why the image below still doesn’t look completed.

It’s turning out amazing though and I cannot wait to share!