Sunday, December 30, 2012

To the windows, to the walls...

'Til paper come off those walls.

I have a bad habit of awkwardly quoting rap lyrics. Let's hope my family readers don't know the real lyrics I replaced. The last time I quoted this song I asked a classroom full of 9th grade boys what "ah skeet skeet skeet" meant. Yup. That happened.

Back to the point of this post. The previous owners of Sheridan wallpapered the kitchen, dining room, and two bathrooms. They were even thoughtful enough to leave us several extra rolls for each room in case...in case of what? I'm sure they put a lot of thought into picking out the perfect wallpaper but our decision to remove it took none.

Taking down wallpaper is a dreaded chore for many but we tried to make it fun. We even invited some friends to our wallpaper party but no one took us up on the generous offer. Not to fear - you all can join in the fun by reviewing our iPhone photos.


Six beers, five (hundred) songs, four slices of pizza, three rooms, two days, and a radio broadcasted Ravens game later and we were wallpaper free.

Let's take this room by room in the order that we worked. Kitchen first.
Kitchen before (Realtor photo)

After some light internet research we decided on the scoring and hot water/fabric softener approach. It went something like this:

  1. Score the wallpaper using the Tiger (purchased at Home Depot)
  2. Apply hot water and fabric softener juice (that's what Alex kept calling it) using foam roller
  3. Wait a minute or two
  4. Peel off top layer of wallpaper
  5. Reapply "juice"
  6. Wait another minute or two
  7. Peel off adhesive layer, use scraper tool to assist
  8. Wash wall with warm soapy water

Dining room and bathroom photos to come in another post.

Project cost:
  • Fabric Softener $5
  • The Tiger (wallpaper scoring tool) $8
  • Foam roller, bucket, paint pan $0 (already had on hand)
  • Sponges $3
  • Scrapers $5 
  • TOTAL: $21

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