The Master Bath Makeover....Part 1....Removing Wallpaper

Hey guys!!  Here we are again....the end of the weekend.....I hope that yours was great!  We were supposed to get a lot of work down on our Master Bath Makeover......but instead.....we decided to have a football watch party....attend a "Snow" day Winterfest party.....and celebrate a birthday.....

So.....in consequence our bathroom makeover took a bit of a backseat.....oh well....I'll take fun with friends and family over DIY anyday.....and that is saying something.....since I've got a little love affair going with DIY projects right now.......  ;)

But....we did make one BIG breakthrough....we finished the removal of all the wallpaper.....can I get a WOO WOO!!!  And we finished floating the walls............whew.........what a lot of work!!

In case you've forgotten.....I gave y'all the low down on our lovely awful Master Bath and talked about some ideas I have for this space HERE.......

But just for fun.....here are a couple of before pics of the Master Bath.....

Yep....it's bad.....

Just look at all of that wallpaper.....AAAAAHHHHHHH!! 

BUT.....NOW....IT....IS.....GONE!!

AND.....seriously.....the removal wasn't that bad......sure......it is tedious work.....but it is doable!!

Here's how we did it.....

First....get you one of these little scoring tools (available at Lowe's).....

And use it to rough up the wallpaper using circular motions.....and then the wallpaper will look like this......



Then spray a wallpaper removal spray all over the wallpaper......we used this......Piranha Wallpaper & Paste Removal Spray.....

It actually worked great!  It says on the bottle to let it set for 15 minutes after spraying, but that wasn't really necessary and in fact we found that after that length of time it would all be dried out.....so we just sprayed in over an area (probably about 3 ft x 5 ft) and then immediately started pulling off.....

The wallpaper will come off in two steps.....after you spray the area the first time.....you will probably only get the top decorative layer of the wallpaper to peel off.......then you will need to respray the area....so that you can pull off the wallpaper backing.....

Here are some pics.....

The wallpaper after being sprayed for the first time, but before any peeling.......

And here is how it looks after peeling off the top decorative layer......and then getting a second spray of wallpaper remover......

And here's an upclose look.....





And.....HERE'S THE SECRET......BE PATIENT.......PEEL SLOWLY AT FIRST.....THIS WILL HELP YOU TO PEEL THE WALLPAPER OFF IN LARGE SHEETS!!

Seriously......this little project is WAY easier if you take a little time and peel off the wallpaper in large sheets....otherwise you will spend half your life forever a lot of time dealing with little bits and pieces of wallpaper stuck on your wall!!

And here is what you'll have after the removal.....

Oh yeah baby!!  Looking better already!!

But....even with a lot of patience and peeling most of the wallpaper off in large sheets.....there will inevitably be a few bits and pieces to be dealt with.....like these......



Gah!!  Oh well.....no worries.....just put a little more spray on them and they will come right off.....like this.....

And finally.....the wall is all clean.....AND WALLPAPER FREE!!  YAHOO!!

Our bathroom already looks SO much better.....and we haven't even started on the improvement projects yet.....just getting that wallpaper down made such a HUGE difference!! 

We are SUPER excited now, because we are about to get to the FUN part....when we get to start working on the new stuff.....the stuff that will hopefully make this bathroom awesome when it's finished......

I can hardly wait to get to work and then show you what all we've done!!  But first.....I'll share some more details on floating the walls.....and taking care of a few other little problems that cropped up......so more on that to come soon.....

So....have any of you guys tackled some wallpaper removal?  How did it go?  Did you use the same technique?  I've heard from a few others that their removal didn't go so smoothly....so I'm wondering if we were just lucky?  I'd love to hear your stories......

Gotta run....

Until next time....

XOXO-
Kristal