Spring 22 ORC Week Three: Wallpaper & Carpet Removal
This post contains affiliate links. If you purchase an item through an affiliate link, I will receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. All opinions remain my own.
It’s week three of the One Room Challenge and this was a BIG one! This was the last room in my house with wallpaper, and over the past two years I’ve been working on removing it little by little. It was a lot more involved than I was expecting with a surprise second layer of wallpaper hiding behind the first, but with a lot of determination, steaming & scraping, we finally got every last bit off the wall.
First layer of blue patterned wallpaper on the left and second layer of wallpaper backing/old wallpaper on the right
Old wallpaper stuck to the back of newer wallpaper
Remaining old wallpaper with leaf pattern, grey and white paint, and darker tan drywall peeking through
Scraping the last layer of wallpaper off and finally getting to the drywall
Old wallpaper and paint on the left, drywall on the right
Before sanding
After sanding
Here’s a breakdown of the process:
Steam wallpaper with my Wagner Wallpaper Steamer for 15-20 seconds in sections
Lift corners of wallpaper with a putty knife and then pull wallpaper off in strips (or as much as I could get at a time)
Steam the wallpaper backing and scrape with a putty knife to remove
Chip away layer of paint with a putty knife
Repeat by steaming second layer of wallpaper for 15-20 seconds in sections and scraping with a putty knife
Remove ceiling trim with a crowbar
Sand remaining pieces with an orbital sander (I recommend wearing safety glasses and a mask during this step)
Wipe down walls with a damp cloth to remove sanding dust, let dry
Patch any uneven spots with joint compound using a putty knife, smoothing out the surface with a taping knife
Easy, right? 😂 Like I said before, this was a lot more work than I was expecting for this step of the room transformation, but now that it’s over, I can say it was absolutely worth it. I’m so excited to be able to prime and paint the walls and really bring out the beauty of this room!
The next step was finally seeing what was going on under the old carpet. I kept it in place as a protective layer from all of the wet, mushy wallpaper as I removed it, but once that step was finished, I couldn’t wait to rip it up.
BEFORE
AFTER
I was SO relived to find the original hardwood mostly in great condition! A few areas have some minor water damage, but overall the floor looks great. I don’t think it’s ever been stained or sealed, so I have a lot of options for what I can do next. For now, though, I have a ton of staples to pull up and remaining bits of carpet padding to vacuum, but I’m incredibly happy with what I found!
Watch my time lapse reel
Next week I’ll be continuing to work on the floors — can’t wait to share more then!
