Wallpaper Hell
Jan. 15th, 2018 03:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kybearfuzzWhen I bought my house back in 2001, the previous owner was big on wallpaper. She had wallpapered the living room, hallway, bathroom, and at least one wall in every bedroom, one with a border. Before I'd moved into the house, I removed all the wallpaper in the house, except the living room and hallway. The wallpaper in the room wasn't floral or ugly, but was textured and had a non-descriptive pattern to it. I dreaded taking it down and the uniformity was not unappealing, so I kept it.
Move forward to now and Boo the Devil Cat has been enjoying actively scratching up the wallpaper. While I found it to be okay, it offends her decorative sensibilities. The good news is that the wallpaper seems to be easy to remove. So last night, I decided to test it out by removing a panel above the closet in the living room.
It took maybe 20 minutes to remove the panel. I still need to remove the glue residue. However, I found out something specific. One, the people who put the wallpaper up did it right. No super glue, or stupid stuff. It came down relatively clean and intact. Two, the original owner to the house, not the previous owner, must have put this stuff up. The wall beneath does not appear to have ever been painted. This wallpaper is almost 40 years old.
The latter bit surprised me a bit. The original owner was a single man and I'm betting it was put up by the builders, and the previous owner was a woman and she apparently didn't want to change it. I thought it was strange as her other wallpaper tastes were far different than this pattern.
The problem I'm feeling now is apprehension. With the panel gone, I'm feeling this urge to keep going and get it all down. I'm impatient and a bizarre sense of OCD is making this missing panel grate my nerves. I'm holding off because I need to have time to move the furniture, take down curtains, and remove electrical outlet plates to do it properly. And then comes the fun of picking colors to paint it. I'm not a wallpaper person. I swore I'd never put that $#!+ up after having so much trouble getting it down.
I'm seriously contemplating hiring a professional painter to do this. I have the name of a guy who apparently does good work. I just need to determine what would be a good week to do this as my travel schedule for work is starting to heat up.
Sigh...
Move forward to now and Boo the Devil Cat has been enjoying actively scratching up the wallpaper. While I found it to be okay, it offends her decorative sensibilities. The good news is that the wallpaper seems to be easy to remove. So last night, I decided to test it out by removing a panel above the closet in the living room.
It took maybe 20 minutes to remove the panel. I still need to remove the glue residue. However, I found out something specific. One, the people who put the wallpaper up did it right. No super glue, or stupid stuff. It came down relatively clean and intact. Two, the original owner to the house, not the previous owner, must have put this stuff up. The wall beneath does not appear to have ever been painted. This wallpaper is almost 40 years old.
The latter bit surprised me a bit. The original owner was a single man and I'm betting it was put up by the builders, and the previous owner was a woman and she apparently didn't want to change it. I thought it was strange as her other wallpaper tastes were far different than this pattern.
The problem I'm feeling now is apprehension. With the panel gone, I'm feeling this urge to keep going and get it all down. I'm impatient and a bizarre sense of OCD is making this missing panel grate my nerves. I'm holding off because I need to have time to move the furniture, take down curtains, and remove electrical outlet plates to do it properly. And then comes the fun of picking colors to paint it. I'm not a wallpaper person. I swore I'd never put that $#!+ up after having so much trouble getting it down.
I'm seriously contemplating hiring a professional painter to do this. I have the name of a guy who apparently does good work. I just need to determine what would be a good week to do this as my travel schedule for work is starting to heat up.
Sigh...