`Many of you know we bought a beautiful home on some land in the spring.  Built in the 1980s, but hasn’t been updated since then. We spent a few weeks painting until I thought my hand may just permanently attach to the paintbrush. I’ve been putting off the master bathroom because it’s covered in wallpaper. *sigh*. Removing wallpaper can be super intimidating and time consuming!

I’ve removed my fair share of pastel-floral and fruit covered wallpaper over the past two years with our two fixer uppers. I’m here to share my favorite removing wallpaper method, with items you probably already have in your pantry!

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What you’ll need:

• an empty spray bottle (I use empty household cleaning product bottles)
• water
• apple cider vinegar* (pictured is the Trader Joe’s version, but I have also used Bragg’s)
• paint scraper* (similar to this)
• old rag

Here’s what our guest bathroom started with…

LOVELY YELLOW. Let’s get it rid of it.

Mix about equal parts apple cider vinegar and water in your empty spray bottle. Sometimes, I do more water than apple cider vinegar, so it’s about a 1/3 to 2/3 ratio because lets be real, apple cider vinegar is not cheap. It doesn’t seem to be an exact science.

Next, try and tear off the wallpaper from the edge, removing as much as the first layer as you can. You can spray it a little first, just to soften the edges.

Spray with the water-vinegar mixture, and allow to soak. I used the rag to catch drips, because I didn’t have a full wall of wallpaper. I don’t time how long I let it soak, basically I just move on removing more of the outer layer of wallpaper in other areas, then come back to it. Maybe a minute or two?

Now use your paint scraper to remove the rest of the wallpaper. It should come of easily and in large pieces!

I usually then use the rag to wipe the surface clean and dry, making sure there is no residual glue, or in this case, dust (ew).

Tear, spray, soak, scrape and repeat until that outdated wallpaper is gone!

 

 

Ta-da! See, removing wallpaper doesn’t have to be all that bad. Now you have a fresh clean slate, and you’re ready to paint! Make sure to check out our painting tips to save time and money.

Here’s what we have now!

Much better. We’ve updated the sink and next on our list for this bathroom is a new toilet and I’m going to try my hand at painting that yellow tub. You can bet I will share how that goes!

Please, share this post with friends who may find this helpful!

Right, now I better get to that master bathroom….

Paint On, 

*This post contains affiliate links. That means, I may receive a commission for some of the links in this post- at no cost to you. See our Disclaimer page for details*