How to Remove a Wallpaper Border

Good Morning! Have I ever mentioned how much I loathe wallpaper? It’s not my favorite thing, although I understand it may be making a comeback. I’m sure they’ve made improvements on it since the 90’s, but… give me paint or give me death! This is me. Pulling my hair out.→

We still own our former house and will be fixing it up for renters. Most of the wallpaper had been dealt with before we moved out, but the master bed and bath rooms still have some. The master bedroom is a painted wall with a wallpaper border at the top. That’s some lovely hunter green and burgundy acanthus leaves and egg-and-dart motifs, don’t you think?

After googling the daylights out of ‘how to remove a wallpaper border‘, I just plunge right in. I decide to go the hot water/fabric softener route. It works really well and smells great too! At first, I use the half and half mixture suggested on one site, but that really proves too much fabric softener, and I find that mostly hot water with a cupful or so of softener is sufficient.

When sprayed on the border, the solution does virtually nothing, since the border is a vinyl-coated paper. This is a photo of the first disastrous results:

I discover that once the vinyl is removed, the remaining paper backing responds very well to the spray solution! So, a system evolves where I score the border in strips with a utility knife and begin to {carefully} peel the sections of vinyl away from the paper.

Then I spray the solution on, let it soak in, and the paper scrapes right off! For the most part, it works beautifully!

Our persistence pays off and we are finally ready to wipe down the walls really good to remove any glue residue and/or dust! My husband joins in so we can finish up for the day…