Toodaloo To The Toile

So I gave it the ole college try.  By popular demand by my friends and family, I left the wallpaper up in our foyer for almost eight years.  I’ve never been a fan – it’s a bit dark and when I walk in the front door, I almost feel heavy.  Blue toile wallpaper hung by the previous owners several years ago has now worn out it’s welcome with me.  It’s gotta go.

As I’ve written before in several posts, when we moved into our 1820, wallpaper hung in every room.  Some rooms, even wallpaper on top of wallpaper.  I’ve become quite good at removing it, and Lord knows my hands have paid the price.  But I’ve given them a rest and I’m gearing up to take on another big project.  Yesterday, that bee flew into my bonnet again and it was at that moment when I walked through the foyer that my mind simply said, bye bye.

So here’s how I’m going to remove the wallpaper, a method that I found worked well for me in the past: First, I’m going to roll a perforating device over the surface.  Instead of using a wallpaper remover, diluted fabric softener works the best for me.  Filling a spray bottle with the diluted softener, I’ll spray on the wall surface, concentrating on small areas and working from there.  Let the softener sit on the perforated wallpaper for around 5 minutes, then go in with a putty knife and start scraping and peeling.

I don’t know what I’ll find once I get started; there’s never a quick and easy way to remove wallpaper, and there could be a few layers under the surface.  There will be times when the paper comes off in teeny tiny pieces, and joyous times when a large piece peels off, which will give me glee and refill my charge to conquer the tedious.

Toodaloo to the toile, which hangs on all the walls in the foyer, up the stairs and along the upstairs open area.  It’s all gotta go.  Once the wallpaper is removed and the walls are cleaned and artwork / photos relocated, a crisp fresh coat of paint will go on and perhaps, another design of wallpaper.  Did I really just say that?…