Wallpaper Wallpaper on the Wall- You are NOT the fairest one of all

In my house, they REALLY wanted to make sure that you knew it was an 80s house.  They wanted it to hit you like BAM when you walked right in.  I'm convinced that's why there was this lovely wallpaper on the huge, lofty wall in the entry.  And it had a sponge-painted look- so it was like a twofer- two really bad wall finishes all rolled into one.  I realized, I never took a photo of the entry before I started just ripping that sh-... stuff.... off the wall.  The listing photo is the best I've got.

But don't you worry... I have a close up down in the basement.  Oh, yea, that's right- they decided that it was such a beautiful selection, to carry it down the other stairwell.  They just couldn't get enough of it!

I know, everyone says that they HATE tearing down wallpaper.  When I watch my house hunting shows on TV, it always makes me cringe when someone says that they won't even consider a home because of the wallpaper.  Even now as I type, I can hear my besties Jonathan and Drew trying to convince a couple to look past the wallpaper in a home.  I decided to NOT try the technique the previous homeowner's technique of just painting over the wallpaper...

So I looked up the removal process- bought a sprayer, some ammonia, and some fabric softener.  Mixed them with some really warm water and put them in the sprayer- according to pinterest it would "melt off your walls just like butter".  It didn't.  I started peeling from the top down, and it was just coming off in tiny strips.  A few minutes in I was sitting on the step getting frustrated and decided to peel up the corner in front of me- it started to come off in one large section!  I tried it again- same thing!  So I got moving once again and got it all peeled off on the stairs next to the basement.  This was all I was planning to do because it was making my wood "feature" walls look so bad.  I ripped that stuff off in under an hour.  Oh- it also made the biggest mess I'd ever seen.  It was stuck all over my clothes, my shoes, the stairs... I also may have slipped on it and fallen down the stairs twice.

But here's the problem.  No one had told me that was only the front part of the wallpaper.  The melting butter stuff made me think my job was done.  It was not.  The whole backing of the wallpaper was still up.  At some point, it dawned on my very intelligent self that I wasn't down to the drywall.  So I went back to Home Depot (I'm convinced I keep them in business), and bought some TSP and a tool to scrape and some sponges.  When I read online to use that, at first I kept thinking I needed a teaspoon of something- took me a few moments to realize it was a chemical.  When I got home, I went back to work on the wall.  I soaked up the TSP and warm water with the sponge and started wiping and scraping the backing off.  Once I got all the pieces removed, I went back over it twice with the TSP, then once with just clean, warm water.  The wallpaper was off, but there were definitely some nicks and dings where I got a little overzealous with the scraper.  After I stood back and admired my handiwork, I realized I still had a whole day in my weekend- this meant I could tackle the upstairs.  Ya know, the one that I wasn't going to touch because of my lofty ceiling and super tall walls?  I'm 5'2"... ok, actually I'm 5' 1 3/4".  Those walls are super tall for me!  But again, I like to think I can do everything on my own.  So, I started spraying down the wallpaper and peeling.  This one was going way faster since I had learned from all my mistakes.  This time I used my ammonia/fabric softener mixture to take the back off too instead of the TSP.  There was just one problem.  There was this one spot that no matter how high I stood on my toes and leaned, I could not reach.  I sent this picture to my friend to show her the progress, and tell her that I wished in this moment I was 5'8" like her.  She noticed the ladder at the bottom of the stairs, and made a comment along the lines of "I hope you aren't going to put the ladder on the stairs because that's not a good idea."  Of course, I had already tried, but could only get it on the very first one.

At this point, I was so angry that I had come this far, I fought with this ladder for 45 minutes, but finally got it set up in the center of the stairs.  Each time I climbed up, I just hoped I wouldn't fall off or over my "safety hazard/not to code" railings.  Then, I wrapped up the job, wiping again with warm water.  Of course, after I got the wallpaper down, I HAD to paint it.  I couldn't just leave it.  But, I had to wait to do it since the wall was wet.  The internet gods recommended allowing at least 45 minutes to dry, so I just waited until the following weekend.  I totally left the ladder set up all week and had to climb around it everytime I went down the stairs.  I started taping.  As I'm sure you've noticed, I've got some fantastic textured ceilings- my knuckles were all cut up from taping the ceiling!

I wasn't sure what color I wanted this painted, since I haven't decided on anything on my main floor.  So again, I just dug through some paint that I already had and found some semi-gloss paint in the color "Baja".  It's a nice neutral color, and I wanted to use a semi gloss so it's easier to clean when people bang into the wall going up and down.  I did find in my research that I had to use a real primer after wallpaper, so the paint guy at home depot found me a gallon to get to work.

It already looked so crisp and clean.  Part of me REALLY wanted to just leave it this color.  Partially because I was exhausted, and partially because of the look.  But, I knew that I had to use real paint to protect it.  I covered both stairwells with two coats of the primer, then did two coats of the final color.  In the picture in the basement, it looks kind of pukey, but it's really not that color in person- note to self- replace lighting in the basement!  But it looks even better in the main entry, and I think that it really draws your eyes to that brick wall instead of the wallpapered wall.

Now, all I notice is the purple hallway upstairs.  Yes, purple paint!  I did not even realize it was purple until after the wallpaper came down.... now it's all I see!  A few coats of paint, and I'll have that fixed too!