Master bathroom wallpaper HELP (painting over, shower, light, oak)
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I also heard that you can mix fabric softner to the water, it supposedly loosens the paper better.
I have yet to try it though.
Hopefully your wallpaper was not put directly on un-primed dry wall, other wise the first layer of drywall will come off, and you so do not want that to happen........then didn't another poster say something about a room full of alligators?, they were hungry? weren't they??
Oh those colors are beautiful....so serene. Crown moulding is a great suggestion as well. Hmmm, now to convince hubby to get on board. We also are having to replace the tub due to a crack resulting from poor installation and the light fixtures and faucets as well. I would love a larger shower but just don't have any room without sacrificing the tub and I won't do that. Not knowing when we will get to this project, if you were going to throw color in there now (rugs, towels etc), what color would you put in there with that wallpaper?
Oh those colors are beautiful....so serene. Crown moulding is a great suggestion as well. Hmmm, now to convince hubby to get on board. We also are having to replace the tub due to a crack resulting from poor installation and the light fixtures and faucets as well. I would love a larger shower but just don't have any room without sacrificing the tub and I won't do that. Not knowing when we will get to this project, if you were going to throw color in there now (rugs, towels etc), what color would you put in there with that wallpaper?
If you are replacing the tub, you could do wainscoting too. I originally held back that thought because it would have been difficult to do with the existing tub surround. If that is coming down and if wainscoting is attractive to you, that could look very nice in your bathroom.
Lets say the wall paper is a "permanent" fixture--so to speak. You could tack up wainscoting over the entire wall and add a chair rail, painting the upper portion of the wall a different color.
Someone with construction knowledge: Are there panel products that go up like wainscoting but are smooth and easy to install, not requiring hours of sanding seams?
Yet another thought would be to do wainscoting on the bottom and wall papering over the existing wallpaper on the top. I have no idea if its possible to wallpaper over wallpaper, but I know I lived in several homes in the 1970's-1980's that have layers upon layers of the stuff!
I found one example for this:
Last edited by TheWayISeeThings; 02-01-2012 at 02:59 PM..
The second picture is exactly what my SIL did in their bathroom, except for the patterned wallpaper. The bead board was that same height, and it covered a multitude of sins. It's GORGEOUS in person.
I love all the great ideas I'm getting! I think this weekend I will try to remove a piece of wallpaper under the vanity and see what happens. Then I'll know more of what I'm dealing with. It's a big project, but I think I'm getting more and more motivated to tackle it
OK, I took a look under the wallpaper that is under the vanity and to me it looks like it was put straight onto the drywall. There was actually a piece way up under the drawer that I grabbed and pulled a little ways. I didn't wet it and try to do a big portion. So now I'm scared to go any further because I don't want to rip the drywall. What do professionals do? Do they steam it off? Can you wallpaper over wallpaper? I'm not sure what to do now. Any ideas?
What do you mean when you say the current paper was hung right on the drywall? Do you mean that when you peel it back you are seeing grey drywall paper?
The only time I use steam to remove paper, is if I am dealing with plaster walls. Steam will cause the paper to fall right off of plaster. But steam can actually damage sheetrock by getting the wall too wet, so that the front of the sheetrock comes off with the wallpaper.
Does your paper have a thin layer of vinyl on the front, which separates from a thinner paper backing? Or is it a fabric backed paper (the back side of it would have a layer of very thin threads on it)?
My usual removal method is to fill a garden sprayer with the hottest water I can safely use. I then DRENCH the paper where it meets the ceiling. I am trying to get the water to run down the wall behind the paper. After drenching it, I wait about 15 minutes, then try to peel the paper down from the top edge. I peel as far down as I can (the wet part usually peels easily) and then spray the new top edge down and wait for it to soak in .
If soaking the wall with hot water (fabric softener mixed in to the water WOULD help) does not allow me to pull the paper away without damaging the drywall behind it, then I stop attempting to strip the paper. You certainly can paint or paper over wallpaper. I only go that route if I find it nearly impossible to remove the paper.
BTW, I never use a paper tiger as I have seen them damage too many walls.
Wow you are definitely a wallpaper expert! Yes, the small amount of wallpaper I pulled back revealed grey board underneath. However, now you have me tempted to use your method with the hot water and see what happens. I've been hesitant to try anything drastic in case I find it's going to be a huge job and something I may want to hold off on. Once I start removing, there will be no turning back
I am not sure what type of wallpaper mine is. It sure doesn't seem to have a vinyl covering on it and the back of what I pulled off was just white. Maybe I'll know after trying a bigger section tonight after work.
Oh, and what is a paper tiger? That scoring tool I've seen people talk about that makes tiny holes in the paper?
If your paper does not seem to have a front layer and a backing, it is probably what is called "strippable" paper. This means it should pull right off, without even wetting it! You could strip that whole room in a half hour.
I would be shocked to hear that someone wallpapered over "virgin" drywall. Maybe they just didn't paint or seal the part of the wall they knew would be covered by your sink.
Unfortunately there is never any way to know what you will find when you strip paper, unless you are the one that hung it to begin with. You could find paint or sealer under the paper on one wall, a previous paper on the second wall, bare unprimed plaster where a repair was done on the third wall, Jimmy Hoffa might be hidden in the fourth wall. It's always an adventure!
Most paper hangars charge as much to remove paper as they do to hang it. They assume the worst case scenario and there are times when they wish they had charged more. There are other times when they strip the entire room in an hour (strippable wallpaper with no surprises under it) and walk away with a very high hourly rate!
Any paper made in the past 40 years ought to be the kind that will come off in large pieces, if not full strips...as opposed to the old stuff that was like removing confetti one piece at a time. There are a few situations that still make removal hard, but let's not cross that bridge till you come to it.
A paper tiger is a scoring tool. It perforates the vinyl front of the paper, allowing the water you spray to get behind the paper and dissolve the paste. Sometimes the little pointy things perforate the drywall as well, so that you end up with textured walls when you paint! If you use a PT, do not apply any pressure to it.
I'll keep checking this thread so I can help as needed!
A few tips: I start out with a bunch of old sheets bunched up at the baseboard (when I have floors that can get wet) to catch all of the water that will run down the walls. But as I strip the paper, I let it pile up on the floor along the baseboards. Wallpaper is very absorbent. It will soak up all of the excess water for you as you continue wetting the walls.
Be careful working around electric. The water is going to run right into your outlets and switches. This should not cause any problem, but be careful not to touch these electrical parts with your metal scraper, which will be wet!
Remember to wait 15-30 minutes after soaking a wall before you try to remove the paper. Use the widest scraping tool you can. I use a wide spackling tool. If the paper does not come off easily, soak it again, wait a few minutes and then try scraping again. You don't want the paper to dry out before you try to remove it. If the paste has been thoroughly wet and returned to it's liquid state, the paper should come right off, even without a scraper.
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