Two days later and the wallpaper in 3 rooms in our new apartment are gone. We had 4-5 people working on the first day and 4 on the second day and we finally got it all done. My hands are sore and my arms can’t be moved without feeling pain but it’s done and we won’t have to do it again for awhile. I can’t understand why people put up wallpaper in the first place.

In case you ever have to deal with taking wallpaper down yourself, here are some tips:

1. Cover the floor adequately. We used painter fleece in this case and taped it up. If you still have a gap between the walls and floors, put towels around the edges. We failed to do this early enough and the liquid ran down the walls and into the floor. Hopefully that dries up quickly!

2. Use a spiked roller to perforate the wallpaper. We used this one that we found at a hardware store.

3. Following the instructions on the bottle, use wallpaper remover and either use a paint roller to apply it to the walls, or use a spray bottle. If you are going to use a spray bottle, it’s best to get one that you can pump and spray without getting RSI. We used one very similar to this.

4. After letting the solution soak in for about 10-15 minutes, use a scraper (preferably new and sharp) and start from the top. Scrape across a column of wallpaper and work your way downwards. At best, the entire column will come down in one piece. At worst, the wallpaper will come off the wall in small flakes. If this is the case, more liquid helps and you will have to do a lot of scraping.

We were lucky in our living room. The wallpaper came down easily and in columns, whereas the bedroom wallpaper came down in small flakes and the study room wallpaper consisted of two layers: one that came off easily and the layer underneath was paper-thin and we had to wet it again in order to be able to scrape it off.

Now the main part is over and we can hire people to do the rest until we get to actually move in!

Here’s wishing you a productive and successful wallpaper removal!