Thursday, September 27, 2012

The Worst Thing Ever

Want to know about the worst thing ever? It's called taking down wallpaper! Seriously, it was just as terrible as everyone told me it would be. We were fortunate that it didn't mess up our drywall but it was still awful.

Here's what we started with:


The top section is obviously a lovely floral/fruit paper with an even more beautiful border. You can't really see it in the picture, but the bottom section is a terrible textured paper...similar to a popcorn ceiling.

My parents just painted their kitchen and the wallpaper peeled right off. Thanks for getting my hopes up, Mom! We tried ripping ours off like they did, but it only took the top layer with the pattern off. The back of the paper was still stuck to the wall. I was told that you can rent or buy a steamer but we are on a budget here people! Thankfully, the helpful folks/our new friends at Lowe's helped us pick out what we needed to get the job done.

First and foremost you need this:


This stuff was a lifesaver. To whoever makes Piranha Wallpaper Remover Gel Spray, my mom and I are forever grateful to you. Along with the gel spray, you also need some scrapers, garbage bags, drop cloths, and lots of upper body strength (which I don't have...Jillian-as soon as I unpack you, I will get back to work!). After we peeled the top, patterned layer off, we soaked the remaining layer in the gel. With the help of a paint scraper, the floral/fruit wallpaper came off pretty easily. I never thought I would cheer for peeling off a big piece of wallpaper, but it was oh so rewarding!

The textured section was a different story. The gel still worked but you had to put a lot of power into the scraping. It came off in tiny little pieces so it took FOREVER! Two days and 4 bottles of Piranha later, we ended up with this:

and

 
I never thought I'd be so happy to see a drywall! With a little spackling and hole fixing, we are now onto the priming and then painting stage of the kitchen makeover. Stay tuned... Also, let me know if you have any tips/suggestions for painting kitchen cabinets!

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