Wallpaper Removal - On Trim!

I've removed a lot of wallpaper from this house and this is just one more case of how annoying wallpaper is... and how the previous owner was obsessed with wallpaper. It's been everywhere - walls, on top of other wallpaper, ceilings, and on trim. This is a case where it was on the trim work. But unlike before, she put it on BEFORE the trim was painted. Talk about a big pain!

Here's the wallpaper on the dining room trim (around the doors and the window)...


Here it is after I took off the first later of wallpaper (that included probably two coats of paint too).


And this is what I'm left with...


There is a nice circle of dry paint on every spot I took the circles off from. I'll get the joy of sanding the trim work before priming and painting. More work, yes, but at least the wallpaper is gone from one more room!

{Dining Room} Painting Power!!

This is a shot of my diningroom - ceiling, wallpaper, and horrible colors - all in one! See those odd shape white pieces? That's wallpaper. So is the white shape in the top left. And, of course, so is the border on the red walls. The white in the bottom right corner is part of the trim to the basement stairs. That's a different post.

Another shot of the weird cutouts and the white wallpaper on the ceiling.




And a close up for those really interested. It's textured. Luckily, it comes off with just some water and elbow grease!




It's all the same wallpaper actually. She (the previous homeowner) bought rolls of the crap paper and put it as is on the dining room ceiling in a rectangle but got creative when she cut out the borders for the living room and dining room. The living room had the rounded side cut out (as seen in some of the pics) and the dining room had the opposite of the round (the semi-plus sign pieces).

It'll all be gone soon! I started pulling off the wallpaper today... just stopped to sit down for a minute, check my school work, clean, run errands (including buying paint!!), and pick up Lily. I also stopped because it went behind my large buffet/china cabinet and the whole thing needs moved to paint so I'll do that tomorrow.

Wish me luck as I continue (with the help of my dad - woo hoo!!) the painting extravaganza that I'm on.

After all of this is done, I will have painted five rooms on the first floor and the entire upstairs. I'll then be calling it quits until we tackle the front bedroom at some point in the future.

Living Room

Above is a picture of the finished wall and the finished ceiling... for some reason, I never got around to finishing the paint color on this side of the moulding. The whole ceiling could use a second (or is third?!) coat of paint, but that is the LAST thing I want to do right now! But isn't it nice looking?! I can't wait to add some picture ledges over the couch and to hang up the framed pictures again. I also need to move the furniture back in place, but I have to finish painting the trim before I do that!

Living Room

I finally have ALL the original paint color covered in our living room! woo hoo!!! It calls for a celebration. The first coat of the paint is now up on all four walls and a second coat is about half way done. I had to stop for a lunch break and paint dry break too. I'd post BETTER pics but I can't find my cameras.... the big one may be in my car and the little one is MIA. So my phone will have to do for now.... BUT the color is better looking in person (for those that have recenly been to my house, it's the same color as upstairs).

After the paint is done, I have to finish the ceiling (yes, I should have finished that BEFORE in case of drips, but oh well!) and then there's the issue of trim... I'm going to paint all the baseboards white and I'd love to paint the three windows and the door too, but I may not have it in me. There is also the issue of the trim that seperates the livingroom and dining room... it'll go white too, but that's a lot of sanding, priming and painting! The good side of all of this is that Lily is at daycare the whole week, so if it's going to happen, this would be the time!

And because it finally opened today, here is a picture of my first lily of the year! It's one of the Asiatic Lilies from last year... there are a ton of buds on it and some on the other plants as well.

Operation Wallpaper Removal, part 2

Here are the pics... I have some more as a semi-tutorial for ya (if you desire one), so those are for the next post. This is the corner of the upper part (you can kind of see the moulding)... I actually found some original (or super old) wallpaper underneath for the first time ever in this house... You can kind of see it in the middle of the pic (you may have to enlarge it) - it's the stripes and a slight floral pattern to the left of the stripes.

Why so many colors? The white is the unpainted plaster that was hidden underneath the wallpaper, the offwhite is some paper from the wallpaper, and the darker colors are from the original (I'm guessing) plaster or paper from the plaster. It was a mess!


You can see the stripes more in this photo from the original wallpaper.

A wide shot...

Cleaned off and primed!

And there you have it. I'll hopefully be finished tomorrow. I'm only removing the paper and painting though - the trim work will wait until next week. I've decided to only paint the trim on the floor and leave the windows. I may paint the trim around the door but I'll wait until I paint the door later this summer. I REALLY want to paint the mantel and fireplace but I can't decide on a color yet. The fireplace/chimney needs some TLC (in the form of a professional) but I may still paint the inside and surrounding bricks a dark color and the mantel a lighter, brighter color (sky blue, perhaps?).

Operation Wallpaper Removal

OK, so I was going to post all the photos on here that I've done so far but Blogger is having issues and I don't have patience anymore. Sooo... this is what you get for now. I'll post more later.

The wallpaper has been up since we bought the place and drove me crazy ever since. I finally have the upstairs finished enough (well... kinda...) that I'm going to focus on the first floor for a minute or two. I had actually started this project two months ago on my Spring Break to see how easy it would come up. It hasn't been a trouble at all, similar to the rest of the wallpaper in our house. Can you believe I've taken wallpaper down in the bathroom, living room, kitchen, and bedroom? I've taken it off of ceilings (yes!), walls, wood trim (seriously!), and on top of textured wallpaper as well. The previous homeowner was a little crazy!

My tip to wallpaper removal, at least so far in this house, has been simple. I pull off the top layer, wet the paper underneath, let it sit, and peel it away. It takes awhile depending on how much glue was used but today it's been easy. I was done with two walls, top and bottom borders (yes, one near the floor and one near the ceiling) in less than 2 hours.

Then comes the boring part - primer and paint.

The first coat of paint is up, so I'll let it dry, put the second coat on, and then take pics for ya. It may need a third coat but I'm not sure.

It's the same color as the upstairs, if you're wondering. Monroe Bisque. Very pretty, simple, light, and soooo much better than what was there!