DIY How to Remove Wallpaper Border

How do you feel about wallpaper? Seems like a polarizing question- people love it or hate it. I'm not terribly fond of it, however I have used it, especially decorative borders to easily add a design element to a room. My dislike of wallpaper originated in the first house my husband and I owned. When we bought it, we didn't realize that the garish Teenage-Mutant-Ninja-Turtle-Green paint in the previous owners' son's bedroom wasn't just painted walls. It was actually painted wallpaper. Since we were new to the whole renovation thing, we were adamant that we were going to do it "right." Which meant stripping the wallpaper down to the plaster and painting.

Well.

That was a noble idea, but we soon realized that there were more layers of wallpaper than the one that was covered by the very bold green. Five layers in one bedroom. Six layers in the other. In both rooms the paint covered the ceilings. Oye. What started as a simple paint job turned into two weeks using a hot, heavy steamer during one of the hottest summers on record in a non-air-conditioned house. Picture steaming hot water dripping down your arms and face as you hold a steamer over your head for HOURS, hundred degree heat, scraping one foot sections off at a time. Decades-old wallpaper landing in your hair, old glue sticking to your face. After stripping off all that wallpaper I vowed to myself NEVER AGAIN. I would never use wallpaper. NEVER.

It is easy to understand, then, why I loathe wallpaper. Except sometimes it really does add just the right touch. The spare bedroom that is going to be my studio's new home was previously used as a little grandmother's sewing room. When we built the house I found a vintagey sewing border and thought it was perfect. With a new purpose, it is time to remove the border. Fortunately I know the walls are sound underneath and this border isn't hiding any of the things wallpaper is often used to mask. If you've never removed wallpaper, stripping it can be easy or difficult, depending on the adhesive that was used to apply it. Most readily available modern wallpapers are vinyl coated so the first thing you want to do is try to peel off that top layer.

This can actually be sort of fun. Kind of reminds me of peeling off skin after a sunburn, trying to see how long of a piece you can pull off at once. Pull with a slow, steady tug to maximize the length and minimize your efforts.

Sometimes you'll have wallpaper which refuses to give up the top layer. In that case you'll have to score the surface with a tool called a tiger tail. It is just a plastic disc with what looks like toothy gears underneath that you swirl over the wallpaper to help the hot water and chemical release penetrate to the paper underneath.

Since I was able to peel off almost all the vinyl, I was left with just the glued paper backing. Using a sponge and warm water, I like to get the paper wet before using any chemicals. It doesn't need to be so saturated that it drips down the walls, but you do want to make sure the surface is completely damp because it will make the chemical stripper work better and faster.

Next, spray the paper with a chemical stripper. I personally like this DIF spray. This bottle has lasted me through at least 5 stripping projects and 9 years. I consider it a bargain! It goes a long way when you remove the vinyl and wet the paper first, and it is still just as fast and effective as it was when new.

Gosh, now that I'm boasting on it, I hope it is still available. The gel spray is nice because it doesn't drip down the walls. It stays where you spray it and makes the whole process much less messy than steamers or liquids.

I work in small sections, maybe 4' or 5' at a time with border, smaller if I'm doing larger pieces of wallpaper. Let the DIF set for about 10 minutes and then see if it is ready with a plastic scraper.

You can see my scraper has seen some use over the 20 odd years I've had it! I use kind of an arcing motion to scrape the paper off the walls. It should come up easily, if it doesn't, you may need to use a wet sponge to re-wet the area and spray a little more DIF. When it is going well, the paper will come off in nice sheets just like the vinyl, although you will have to use the scraper underneath almost the entire surface.

Once all the paper is off, use fresh warm water and a clean sponge to remove the remaining glue residue. If there are any nail holes, be sure to spackle and sand, then you'll be ready to primer and apply a fresh coat of paint.

Removing the wallpaper border in this room took approximately half an hour. As I said, with the right technique and tools, and newer wallpaper, this process doesn't have to be brutal. If your wallpaper is a century old, though, as it was in my first house- well, I wish you a little luck and a lot of patience. On the bright side, two weeks of steaming could land you some nice triceps!