how to remove wallpaper.

oy! my back is killing me. probably from spending so much time patting it for a job well done. after spending 8 months procrastinating, i finally "finished" my dining room. in that amount of time, i could have nearly gestated a baby. if you can think back to blog posts of yesteryear, in a fit of boredom and disgust, i impulsively ripped down the heinous floral wallpaper that once called 376 W. 33rd street home. and then i was over it. and over it. and over it. part of the reason that led to the abandonment of the project was the fact that i never actually knew how to strip the wallpaper. after searching the internet, i learned that a million different experts had one million conflicting suggestions on how to tackle the paper problem. so i did what i do best: avoid.

in an effort to make myself look a bit less trashy, i bit the bullet and gave in.

in an effort to help the blogging community avoid the frustration that i experienced, here's a toot to help you transform your wallpapered room from bleak to chic.

begin by stripping as much of the wallpaper off as possible. this is the part of the paper that will come off without any water or tools. just good old fashioned ripping. warning: if you start pulling and automatically tear into the drywall, abort mission. you're going to need to wet it down.

after you've removed as much of the top layer as possible, you're going to need to perforate the bottom layer(s) with a tool called a paper tiger. that's the bottom tool in the above picture. the tiger punches little holes all over the paper that allows the liquid that you use to get down to the glue.

if you ask 10 different people, they will probably suggest 10 different solutions for removing the wallpaper. i recommend using DIF. you add the whole bottle to two gallons of hot water and sponge it all over the paper. wait 15 minutes, and then reapply the solution to small sections of paper as you begin to scrape away the paper with a razor blade. some people swear by steamers, but i did not have good luck using one and eventually gave up on it. i'll be honest, this is the part of the process that really really really sucks. you'll exhaust your arsenal of swear words and take to boozing multiple times. but don't do it. because i imagine removing wallpaper with a hangover would just be adding salt to the wounds.

thank you, mom, for helping me scrape.

if you are as lucky as me, you will get done scraping off all of the wallpaper, then go to investigate a loose corner and discover a bonus layer of wallpaper underneath. you'll cry, you'll get over it, and then you'll repeat the process until, yes, all of the wallpaper is removed.

once you're convinced all of the paper is off, your wall should look something like this. now you're going to want to sand all of the glue off of the walls. i really wanted to skip this step, but i'm glad i didn't. if the glue stays on the walls, the paint won't adhere and you'll eventually have peeling.

if you are as lucky as me (note the sarcasm), you'll rip into the drywall here, there, and everywhere. that will look something like this:

the light brown spots are shallow drywall tears and the dark brown spots are deeper tears. either depth of tear sucks. kind of like stretchmarks. no matter how deep they are, they're ugly.

if you have drywall tearing, you're going to need to seal the tears so you can eventually create a smooth surface. i highly recommend zinsser gards. it looks like watered down glue and makes a big difference after it's applied.

brush the gardz over each brown patch to seal the patch.

next, you're going to want to sand each patch to create another smooth surface. this project requires a LOT of sanding. if you don't have an electric sander, i highly recommend buying one. this coming from a self-proclaimed cheapskate. after you've sanded the patches, fill them in with spackle. and then guess what you get to do again: sand the patches! now, using a roller brush, you'll want to paint a thin coat of the gardz over the entire wall. this will provide further protection against any peeling that might occur due to any rogue wallpaper glue.

at this point, the wall is stripped and prepped for painting. that's a whole new tutorial and one that you will not find on this blog.

and here's what you've all been waiting for: a before and after!

before:


after:


clearly the room is not done yet. i'd like to install a couple of shelves and add some color through accessories and artwork, but it is a far cry from the secret garden that used to crawl all over the walls. and i suppose i should buy some plates to cover the switches and electrical outlets.

and in case you're wondering, the name of the paint color is tibetan mist by valspar (available at lowe's). don't you feel like you're looking at a picture of tibet?

yeah, me neither.