It has begun--Wallpaper removal

It all started in the bathroom shortly after we moved into our new home.

I noticed a corner of the minty-green wallpaper was loose...

hmmm..I wonder if I just pulled that up with my fingernail...would it peel up easy?...

and thus it has begun...

When we moved into our home, we knew there was going to be work to do.

It had been a bank-owned property for some time and needed some TLC.

 

The house ended up being in great shape--only minor fixes.
However, the master bedroom was a sea of multi-colored green stripes.

  Mind you, it is nice paper...but...
someone put a lot of work into papering ALL the walls...and
as if that was not enough...the ceiling is papered too.
In a pattern.
In mint-green.
Do you know how hard it is to fall asleep under mint-green swirly patterned paper?
{The dark circles under my eyes should answer that.}
It had to go....

 

My goal was to get it off the walls and get a soothing creme and white palette going.

Amazingly, that little corner did peel off rather easily....and we were able to quickly peel the stripes in the main room using a spray bottle of water to soak the paper thoroughly 

working sheet by sheet...waiting a few minutes and then peeling carefully.  

Some sheets came off without tearing. {yay}

 

I was pleasantly surprised by the nice taupe color that was underneath!

Just seeing that color against my furniture already made me feel calmer in the room.

 Once the walls were peeled...we took to the ceiling...

Let's just say this pattern did not come off as easy.

I called in the heavy artillary--my dear husband...

who dutifully stood on a ladder looking up for the better part of 3 hours.  

He used a "scorer" to poke holes in the paper so moisture would soak through and just soaked the paper.  

With mint-green paper

peeled ceiling!

But we were left with a really yellowed and gross looking ceiling.
One coat of matte-white ceiling paint took care of the yellow
and really made the room fresh.
{I will do a room reveal with finished paint soon.}

Next: the master bath--the same wall-to-wall paper.

Here is the built-in vanity that has some changes coming.

We are debating taking out the built-in and using 

the space for a tall piece of freestanding furniture.

OR

creating floating shelves.

I am planning on this area for towel storage. 

And since it it the first thing you see as you walk to the bathroom area...

I want it to be a "wow" statement.

We are still in the mess of things.  

Look for some "reveals" coming soon!