So here's where we are in the house. The last time I updated we painted the living room walls and trim. You can read about it here. We attempted to put up the moulding but it was really hard to do without the proper tools. I'll explain more when we finally get it done but it is definitely a work in progress. Right now I'm going to explain how we got here.
From here
In order to keep things moving in the house, I decided to start working on the hallway. Unfortunately, the hallway is the beginning of a horrible task we have throughout the house. Wallpaper.
Yes, the house is layered in wallpaper. In the hallway, all of the bedrooms, in the stairs going down to the basement and in the bathroom. I've never seen so much wallpaper in my life. I have never removed wall paper before and dreaded the process but like everything else dealing with this project, I just said "ain't nothing to it but to do it".
Wallpapered Hallway
Prior to beginning this portion of the redesign, I did some extensive research. I read all the various wallpaper removal techniques and tools. I visited my "friends" (in my head) over at Young House Love (YHL) and read their process on removing wallpaper (so far they used two methods explained here and here). Based on my research and the reviews I read online I decided to steam the wallpaper off.
I first made a trip to my now third home (behind my actual home and work) to Home Depot and purchased the Wagner 705 128 oz. Wallpaper Steamer for $49.97. I picked this machine because it had the best reviews on the Home Depot website. You can also rent a wallpaper steamer from Home Depot and I would have chosen that option but the store nearest to my home does not rent tools. Also, since I have a houseful of wallpaper I figured it made sense to go ahead and purchase my own steamer. I also purchased Zoom Workforce 3 in. Flexible Scraper for $4.37 (no particular reason for picking this one other than it was cheaper than the $8 one I initially saw) to assist in getting the paper and glue off.
Image from homedepot.com
Basically what happens is that you fill the base with water to the fill line, plug the steamer in and let it heat up (approximately 12 minutes or less) and take the paddle and hold it to the wall for what the instructions say for approximately ten seconds.
Since my husband worked second shift that day, I had to wait until he left before I began the project. I started around 3 pm and by 11 pm, I had most of the work done. It wasn't hard but it was quite tedious. Also, this is probably not a project I would not want to do during the summer since the heat from the steam is unbearable. I had to turn the a/c off because the steam was triggering it on too often. It was a trip but I definitely got the remaining walls (a half wall and two quarter walls) done on Sunday.
Everything went as smoothly with the steaming since I followed the instructions to the letter. One difference I noticed was that I needed to leave it on for longer than the recommended ten seconds. I steamed each section for approximately thirty seconds. Also, as soon as I moved the paddle away, I started steaming another section while pulling down the paper from the section I just steamed (I got that tip from YHL). To break it down and make it less confusing. I would steam section A and once I move the paddle on to section B, I begin moving the paper from section A immediately. I find that the longer I let the dry the paper the harder it was to remove without steaming again. Another thing I noticed was that the decorative portion of the wallpaper (the top) came off more quickly. I then had to go back and steam the glue paper to get that off. That was actually easy to remove as well except for the top portion that had the border.
In this picture, you can see that the wall had some weird white paint (it could have been primer). I think this caused the glue to stick more so I had to add more elbow grease to have it removed. Again, tedious but not hard. You also see that the paper is coming off in strips but this wasn't the norm. More often, I was able to remove entire sheets of the wallpaper at a time. Ultimately, the walls are going to be the same as I painted in living room here and the review here. I also plan to do some board & batten on the bottom portion. The board & batten, in addition to the trim, will be done in Behr's dupe of Benjamin Moore's Decorator's White paint. I will explain later why I decided to try something other than the Glidden paint. I figured this would break up the continuity of the hallway looking like the living room as well as give it it's some character.
Once you have fully completed the removal, you then must wash the walls from the glue debris that was left behind. I did this on the following Friday night. There are many different options but what worked for me was filling a bucket with water and adding white vinegar to it. The vinegar and the water worked together to get the glue off very easy by just using a large sponge (similar, if not the same, as the kind of sponge used for tiling). For the tougher areas, I used a Scott's brand green scrubber. I would say it took me maybe an hour and a half to do the entire hallway ensuring that I got every piece of glue remaining so that there would not be any problems when it was time to paint.
Once you have fully completed the removal, you then must wash the walls from the glue debris that was left behind. I did this on the following Friday night. There are many different options but what worked for me was filling a bucket with water and adding white vinegar to it. The vinegar and the water worked together to get the glue off very easy by just using a large sponge (similar, if not the same, as the kind of sponge used for tiling). For the tougher areas, I used a Scott's brand green scrubber. I would say it took me maybe an hour and a half to do the entire hallway ensuring that I got every piece of glue remaining so that there would not be any problems when it was time to paint.
Before washing wallpaper glue
After washing walls down
This project has made me feel invincible because I am able to do things I knew I could do in my head but never actually did before. It's so exciting!
Meet me back here where I can finish telling you about my hallway adventure. Until then!
Disclaimer: All items used in this blog entry were purchased with my own money for my own use. I was not asked to promote any particular brand by any particular company. All decisions and products were selected based on my needs at the time.
No comments:
Post a Comment