What's Behind Your Wallpaper?
Along with changes to our front yard's landscape we are also working on some kitchen renos over the next few weeks. This led to the unfortunate task of wallpaper stripping. I hung a floral Waverley wallpaper in my kitchen in 1997 after I easily stripped the original wallpaper off two of the walls. At the time I decided that the gunky glue and specks of paper I would need to remove in order to paint required more effort than I wanted to expend, so instead of painting, I re-wallpapered. As it turns out that was not a good idea. The newer wallpaper was very stubborn and despite home remedies of hot water, vinegar, and cheap fabric softener I had to break down and rent a steamer. I spent most of the past weekend scraping and peeling small strips of paper off the two walls. The patterned layer came off in thin pointy strips followed by the linty beige under-layer which required a bit of peeling, but more scraping and shaving. L...