Jon and Amber

Jon had to work today but I didn’t, so what do you do when you have some minor OCD tendencies and spent the entire weekend discussing how much you hate wallpaper? You start tearing it down on your Monday off when you’re home alone, that’s what!

I actually learned some interesting things about a couple kinds of newer wallpapers today.

First of all, I learned what “strippable wallpaper” is. Strippable wallpaper is wallpaper that you can just peel away with your bare hands and be done with it! No scraping, no glue, no residue – just peel and go!

Here is an example of strippable wallpaper (the border around the doorframe):

And here is the same door about 10 seconds later:

So easy! This is the border that was in the room we use as a closet right now (the future nursery). It was pasted up around the door, closet, and window. I pulled it all down with my bare hands in under three minutes. Sweet. This is also the room that used to have pink paint in it. I know this because we pulled down a shelf a while back and found this:

It’s a little more intense bubblegum pink in person. Eek!

Anyway, we will be repainting the room as soon as we get all of the closet setup out of there. I forgot to take a picture of that but who really wants to see all of Jon’s work clothes and junk? I don’t know what we’re going to paint it, but I think probably just some kind of neutral white or cream or maybe a very light tan or yellow or green. OK I actually have no idea. Don’t rush me. It’s not critical.

The second thing I learned today is that another kind of wallpaper is “peelable wallpaper”. It is not as quick and convenient as strippable wallpaper, but it is still a lot easier to deal with than the old kind of wallpaper with all the nasty adhesives and junk (or so I’ve read – I’ve never actually had to deal with removing old wallpaper).

Peelable wallpaper works like this when you’re removing it: First you have to peel off the outer layer – it’s usually vinyl or something kind of waterproof so you can wash it. That leaves a layer of paper and adhesive on the wall. What you do then is wet the paper down, saturating it until it starts to bubble away from the wall a little bit. I used a spray bottle with a 50/50 solution of warm water and vinegar. I don’t think vinegar is necessary for peelable wallpaper, but I didn’t realize when I started that this was the kind of wallpaper I’d be dealing with. And anyway, I like wiping stuff down with vinegar water. Freshens things up. No, really! If you have stinky smoky room, take a cotton dishtowel and soak it in vinegar and water. Wring it out, and then spread it out in your hands and swing it around the room like a flag for a while. It totally freshens up the room! Good for cleaning surfaces too.

OK, anyway, to get back on track… once you saturate the paper left on the wall, you basically just peel it off. You don’t really even need a scraper, but I found it handy for getting the edges started, or for the occasional stubborn spot that didn’t peel off on the first try.

Here is what the peelable wallpaper in our bedroom looks like:

(it’s not too bad but you can see EVERY. SINGLE. SEAM. and well, we just really hate wallpaper anyway)

Also, this is that hideous wallpaper border in our bedroom:

These pinecones went all the way around the room and around the door, as you can see above. (I took those pictures after I had already started peeling it off.) That wall where the door is does not have any other wallpaper, but the other three walls do.

Oh, and look at this classy job:

Oh yeah, they really did put a wallpaper border right over the air intake vent. CLASSY.

Here are some pictures of those steps I used to remove the stuff.

Here is how a small section of the wall started out:

(Notice the very visible seam. Every seam is that visible all around the room. Yuck.)

I peeled off the outer layer, leaving the inner paper layer behind:

Then I sprayed it down with my vinegar water:

And peeled the wet paper right off:

(That lighter spot in the bottom left corner is where they apparently got tired of painting dark forest green, and seemed to have just quit. Very weird.)

So that’s what I was doing today for fun. This weekend Jon will help me do the up-high parts of the walls that I can’t reach. I didn’t want to stand on a chair to do them because I always hear that pregnant ladies are supposed to be so clumsy, and while I don’t FEEL prone to falling down, I didn’t want to take any unnecessary risks.

Painting over that dark green is going to be real fun. *rolls eyes*