Bye Bye Birdie

Let me start by saying I'm not a big fan of ducks in general.  Have you ever taken your child to feed them and next thing you know your surrounded by hundreds of quacking ducks all vying for those few pieces of stale bread you have in your hand.   I mean, am I the only one that starts running low on bread and chunks the whole bag at them and runs?? 

See... this is about two seconds before Will got a good nip!

Now, imagine having a pretty strong aversion to ducks to begin with and then walking into your soon to be new house and seeing THIS wallpaper!

Ahhhhh!!!!  Turn and run!!  They are after you :-)

Ok, so, slight exaggeration but you must admit this wallpaper is beyond awful!  As we did the walk thru of our house on our way to closing I pulled a big chunk of it down!  It felt good!  There were actually two versions of this.  One in Gray's bedroom and the coordinating partner in an adjoining powder room.  I made my sweet sister get to work helping me pull the rest of the wallpaper down.  She is cool like that... even though she gave me lots of mean looks.

Check out this mean look.  She inherited it from my dad!

Some wallpaper removing tips.
1.  Bring your patience.
2.  Pray for good luck.
3.  Use the right tools!

I have removed a lot of wallpaper in my day.  I have tried just pulling it off piece by piece, the scoring tool and spraying warm water, the scoring tool and spraying the expensive wallpaper removing goo, and all three combined.  But, the hands down winner for me has been the scoring tool and a steamer! 

Tools you need.
1.  Putty knife
2.  Wallpaper scoring tool.  I used the Piranha Wallpaper Scoring Tool from Lowes.
3.  Either the chemical remover or a steamer.  I used this Wagner Wallpaper Steamer and it worked great.
4.  Drop cloth.
4.  You may or may not need a step ladder or stool.
5  I recommend you do enlist a partner!

I do not endorce this method.  But, if you do choose to use it... make sure your sister is skinny too.

Drape your floor, remove outlet covers, start scoring.  I work section by section.  Score, score, score. Steam, steam, steam. And, S-L-O-W-L-Y pull from the top down with one person working on each corner of the wallpaper pulling down and in toward the middle. It's not rocket science, but it is tedious and more often than not, a super duper annoying task. For the record, cussing at the wallpaper will not make it come off any easier. Listening to music really loud and working with your sister does seem to help though!

A lot of people swear by the chemical method but for me the steamer worked best.  You can always try the chemical first and if it doesn't work then move on. 

Here are a few afters of the powder room.

The wall color is a warm neutral from Sherwin Williams called Basket Beige (SW6143)

All the art in the room is from Children Inspire Design.  These are the Good Manners Wall Cards.  Totally adorable and totally affordable!

"You Are My Sunshine" print from Children Inspire Design, thrifted picture frame, and $12 Target Lamp.

This is from Gray's room looking in.  The vanity is a custom mixed Navy I had color matched to his bed.   I bought the wooden GRAY letters at Walmart and he painted them himself.

This is a small space hard to take pictures of but it is one million percent better!  So, if you're tired of that dated old wallpaper go get to it!  It's not fun but the finished product is amazingly rewarding.

Kandi

A couple other articles that might be helpful.
Removing Wallpaper with Steam
How to Remove Wallpaper: Patience Is a Virtue
How to Remove Wallpaper