Removing 70's Wallpaper

This project was pure nightmare. I finally decided that I had to do something with the ugly wallpaper in my entry foyer. Foyer was covered with this weird grasscloth type wallpaper. It might work if the wallpaper wasn't damaged and the house is Japanese style. But my wallpaper was damaged badly in some places and there is nothing Japanese about my house.

I thought I'd just remove it and paint the wall. Well, nothing is ever easy in my 70's house. First, I had to remove grass-looking thingy. It was so hard to remove when it was dry. But when I sprayed with water, it came off easily. I wish I'd done that from the beginning.


Then here comes the difficult part. How do I remove the paper under the grass-cloth thing? The answer is "I don't know" because the wallpaper wouldn't come off! First, I tired Diff in a blue bottle. Then tried Diff in a red bottle. The used Paper Tiger & Diff. Nope. Dishwasher soap and hot water. Nope. Vineger and hot water. Nope. Nothing works. When I tried to remove the wallpaper, I kept ripping the sheetrock paper and damaging the wall.

Hello and welcome to the wallpaper hell

When I searched on the internet, someone said covering the wallpaper with plastic sheet helps removing old wallpaper. So I sprayed Diff and covered area with a garbage bag. I also tried food wrap. Okay, maybe little better. But it didn't really make big difference and certainly not worth the trouble of covering the wall with plastic sheet.


I even discovered the older wallpaper under the wallpaper I was removing. Yay, freakin' yay.
I worked on removing wallpaper every day after work for 2 weeks. In my opinion, dishwasher soap and Diff didn't make any difference. Actually, because Diff is more expensive and dishwasher soap smells better, I prefer dishwasher soap. I

f you are fighting with stubborn wallpaper like this one, I recommend spray wallpaper with dishwasher & hot tap water mix. Wait 10-15 minutes. Come back before it dries out and spray the mix again. Wait about 10 minutes and then remove wallpaper while wallpaper is still wet.

To be continued...