Wallpaper has made a fast comeback in recent years. More and more you’re seeing wallpaper being used to spruce up spaces in one’s home. Everything from murals, to accent walls, to ceilings, to entire rooms, wallpaper is no longer a thing of the past.
A few years ago I decided that our dinning room needed a little something extra to bring cozy feels, yet a wow factor to the space. I turned to wallpaper and found the perfect fit in Oh Joy!’s design for Hygge and West. For years I loved it. But in this current season I’m craving change once again. Blame it on the nesting hormones or simply just the fact I wanted something that was more simple and fitting the style our home is heading now. Either way we’re changing things up over here and it feels good!
For weeks I dreaded the process, but discovered an easy solution that works really well. And the best part is it’s safe, non-toxic, free of harmful chemicals. It took me roughly 4 hours to take it all down. I move a little slower these days being 33 weeks pregnant, so given that, with a wall the size of ours, I would bet it could have been taken down in less time than that even.
So what is this solution you’re talking about? How do you remove wallpaper using safe products?
It’s simple. Two easy ingredients : fabric softener + hot water. You simply take a one gallon bucket and fill it 3/4 full of hot water. Add a 1/2 cup fabric softener and mix. Take an old rag and wipe the area that your working on. Let the mixture soak in for 2-5 minutes, reapply and start scraping. You’ll find it comes off more easily if you continue to reapply and get the wallpaper nice and wet.
Because we have plaster lathe walls, we had to prep our wallpaper with lining paper before applying the actual wallpaper. Why? The lining paper provides a smooth surface for the wallpaper to adhere to. The process didn’t make it more challenging putting on or taking off. It did however, add another step to the process which took more time putting up as it did taking it down.
The solution works great for both and multiple layers of paper. My tip for anyone finding themselves wanting to remove wallpaper, despite it’s beauty, is keep the paper nice and wet and be sure to use a scoring tool.
Happy scraping!
Looking forward to sharing our after with you soon!