How to Remove Wallpaper Easily!

I am working on a complete refresh of our dining space (woohoo new projects!!)  and the first step was removing a wallpaper mural.  The mural has been up for going on 9-10 years so its been glued to the wall for awhile, this made me a bit nervous about how hard it would be to remove.

Well turns out my fears on removal were unwarranted because we had the entire thing (8 panels) down in less than 30 minutes!

Here’s a shot of the space and mural I removed.  It functioned as an office here which I transformed during the ORC.

As much as I loved this it didn’t work for us anymore.  I moved my desk to the actual office now that the kids aren’t using it for school.  Which meant this room had no function as is, I decided to go back to a dining room with a whole new look so wallpaper needed to go.

Here’s what we used to do the job:

Wallpaper scoring tool

Metal blade spackle knife

Wagner Spraytech Multipurpose Steamer

Towels

First step is set up your steamer, it takes 10-20 minutes to heat up and be ready to go.  If you fill it and turn it on, it will be ready for you when you are.  Side note: I bought this steamer a few months ago for cleaning (which is amazing for BTW) but it came with a wallpaper remover attachment so I decided to give a try, highly recommend based on how easy it turned out to be.

While that heats up take your scoring tool and just run it around all over your wallpaper.  This tool pokes tiny holes in your paper that lets the steam get underneath to the adhesive.  If you don’t do this or miss a spot it will be SO much more difficult.

Now that you  have scored the paper thoroughly, lay towels down at the base of the wall where you will be working.  There will be a lot of water runoff from your steamer so it keeps it from getting slippery/messy.

You are ready to remove!  Take your steamer and hold it right on the wall over the top of your first panel, let it sit for a few seconds slowly moving across to the other corner.  You will see it loosen up a bit, as you continue to hold the steamer take your spackle knife and gently lift the top corner where you started with your steamer.  If it still sticks at all just hold the steamer over it again.  Gently pull away from the wall, continue this process of steamer and gently pulling the panel all the way to the floor.

By doing this we were able to remove panels whole which made it SO much easier. Repeat until all wallpaper is removed.

A shot of how the panels came down whole.

If you have any scrap bits left behind just blast it with the steam and it comes right off.

I was so pleasantly surprised by how easy it was to remove as I had been mentally preparing for a battle.

The full mural removed and laid out in panels!

It left the wall nice and clean ready for the new.

I actually remember most of those paint sample color names haha.

Have you ever removed wallpaper?  How did it go and what method did you use?  I always love to hear from you so hit me up in the comments with your experiences or questions!

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I have been working like mad on wallpapering this entire room in some really crazy cool paper with some other DIY’s coming up to get this room finished and you won’t want to miss it!

XOXOXO