Yeah, so do you get why I wanted to get rid of it? I started by simply peeling up the wallpaper all over the entire room. The paper itself was pretty thick, so it came up pretty well for the most part. This part probably took me half an hour.
In pulling it up, I found out that the room had never been painted! The wallpaper was placed directly onto the drywall, which I don't know if it was a good or bad thing. I had to use a putty knife and a spray bottle full of water to get the bottom layer of paper and adhesive off. It worked great in most areas, but some took some extra tedious work and it only came off in tiny pieces. This was the most time-consuming part, but I just did a few hours at a time on random week nights and some on a weekend. I was amazed at how much paper came off those walls in that small room!
Once I got that done, I gave it an overall sand and also filled in some uneven spots with putty, and then sanded those parts down. After that it was time to go buy myself some paint! The bare drywall made me feel like I needed to prime it first, just to seal out moisture (since it does have a shower in it) and help the paint to stick well and look polished. I know it's not my house, but I wanted to do it right. I was glad that I did this step!
Doesn't the paint make the white tile look so much "whiter" than before? I chose Behr's Mineral for the color, which is sort of a greige (gray + beige). I saw it on Michelle's blog in her kitchen makeover, and I knew it was the color I wanted. I'm so happy with it!
And here is the finished result...
It's not a huge difference color wise, but it getting rid of those... stripes? woven spirals? bamboo? whatever you call them... made such a difference to me. I think it was worth it! If it were my own place I would probably do some more things, but for now I am happy with these results that only cost me the price of the paint.
Both of our other two bathrooms have wallpaper, so we'll see if I get around to doing those too! I'll keep you posted :)
nice job lady!!! taking wallpaper off scares me - i always think it's so hard, but your approach to do it on random weeknights here and there was totally the right one. makes it feel more doable. love the new look.
ReplyDeleteOh wow! That makes a huge difference! It updates it so much! Well done! :)
ReplyDeleteWow, that looks great! Good job :)
ReplyDeleteThis looks so much better! And I am jealous of how big the pieces of wallpaper are that were coming off your walls.... we are stripping the wallpaper in our dining room and it is taking FOREVER! I keep getting teeny tiny pieces...along with big chunks of the wall :( I'm impressed that you took this job on yourself, especially with sanding down the walls!
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