A 1960s gem is bound to have some wallpaper and wood paneling. Wood paneling can be changed to a painted look with a simple coat of primer and paint, but wallpaper? We’ve discovered that removing wallpaper and prepping walls to be painted can be a real challenge.
This week, we’re sharing our advice on how to remove wallpaper, and once the wallpaper is off, how to prepare walls for paint. Maybe we can save you a headache!
How to Prep Papered Walls for Paint
Let me first say – if you’ve got a mom who’s willing to stand on a ladder with a steamer and patiently pull down wallpaper, hug her extra tight! Thank you, Mom!
Get all of the wallpaper down.
When you Google how to remove wallpaper, everyone has their favorite method. We are steamer people. We used our multi-purpose wallpaper steamer from Lowe’s to get the wallpaper off. It is a slow tedious process, but one that has worked well. (Again, thanks Mom!)
Smooth the walls.
After wallpaper removal, there may still be traces of glue left on the wall, leaving an uneven and unfinished service. Instead of replacing all the sheetrock, we decided to scrape the glue and then sand the walls down to prepare for a skim coat. If you have areas in the drywall where it’s down to the brown paper on the drywall then you will also want to prime the walls before applying your skim coat of joint compound.
Skim coat the walls.
We used an all purpose joint compound and thinned it down with water. A simple mixing tool on a drill was used to mix the compound to a yogurt-like texture. We then used a 12 inch drywall taping knife to spread a thin layer of our compound over the walls.
Sand the walls.
We allowed the thin skim coat of compound to dry and then sanded the walls. Initially a 120 grit sanding sponge was used, followed by a finer 220 grit sponge to get the smooth finish we desired.
Prime the walls.
Before painting, you will need to prime the walls with an oil based primer. Once this is complete, you are ready to paint your new walls!
Though this can be a slow and tedious process, it is important to weigh the cost and benefits of of a DIY project versus hiring someone to finish your walls for you or to tear out and re-sheetrock your room.
I did some quick research at our local Lowe’s for the cost of materials for an average bedroom, shown in the table below. Want to know how to remove wallpaper? Invest in these items. You may even already have some of these.
| Material | Average Cost |
|---|---|
| 5 gallon bucket | $ 4.98 |
| 2” ribbon mud mixer | $ 12.98 |
| 12” plastic mud pan | $ 6.98 |
| Taping knife | $ 13.98 |
| Sandpaper | $ 6.48 |
| All-purpose joint compound | $ 16.57 |
I am not a professional, so this process probably took me two to three times longer than hiring someone to do it for me.
For an average bedroom, this process took me about 2-3 hours for the wallpaper removal, 1-2 hours of prepping the walls for a skim coat, about 3-4 hours for skim coating (this is where I am really slow!!!), and about 30 minutes for sanding and preparing the walls to be primed.
However, this was a big DIY cost savings versus hiring someone to complete this process for us and certainly a big cost savings over hiring someone to hang and finish new sheetrock.
Check out these beautiful DIY walls ready for paint:
