Our Chiang Mai Dragon wallpaper was installed in the powder room last weekend!
Here's a sneak peak, and stay tuned... I promise to have FINISHED pictures of the powder room in my next post! Yes! Our powder room is thisclose to being completed!
While the wallpaper hanger was around, I asked him for some wallpaper removal tips because we have a TON of it to remove in the rest of our house.
I learned that there is a different technique for removing fabric backed vinyl wallpaper than for removing paper based wallpaper.
Fabric Backed Vinyl Wallpaper - He said that wallpaper made with fabric backed vinyl isn't that common these days, but we seem to have a lot of it in our house. To remove it, he said to start at the ceiling, take a wallpaper scraper, and pick open a seam. Rip the corner away from the wall and pull. The paper will come off in huge sheets. No steaming, no chemicals, no scoring necessary. Who knew?
After the paper is down, there will be a bumpy glue residue left on the walls which can be removed with a wall sander.
Paper based - He actually laughed at me when I told him it took me 3 days to remove the paper based wallpaper in my bedroom using a steamer. He suggested using a commercial product like DIF, and apply it (mixed with water) using a low pressure sprayer over the entire room. Wait 10 minutes for it to be absorbed by the paper and repeat. In fact, he said to repeat this process until the paper stops soaking in the water. He said that the walls need to be soaking wet (his italics, not mine). Then starting from the ceiling, use the wallpaper scraper to get underneath the paper and scrape downward. Again, he said it should come off in huge sheets. (he also said it should take hours, not days, but I'll believe it once I try it).
Do you have any tried and true wallpaper removal methods?
