How to Remove Wallpaper (The Easiest Way Step by Step!)

Want to know how to remove wallpaper? I’ve tried lots of different ways and am sharing what I’ve found works best!

Just like there was in our previous home, there is a LOT of wallpaper to remove at our new home in NC! Over the years I’ve tried every trick in the book for taking old wallpaper down (we have a knack for buying houses absolutely loaded with it) and today I’m sharing the way that works best for me. I’m also sharing the “before” and “after” makeover of the most recent room I removed wallpaper in – our laundry room. Ready to see?? (post includes affiliate links; full disclosure available {here})

Here’s the “before” of what our laundry room looked like when we bought our house:

I was able to get all of the wallpaper in the entire room down in under two hours which is pretty amazing! The key to my wallpaper removing technique is to use an inexpensive handheld steamer like you steam clothes with. I have {this one} and it works great (remember to use all of the precautions on the steamer instructions to avoid getting burned by the steam and don’t use it near any electrical outlets or switches). The process is simple, but I’ll show you how to remove wallpaper step by step so you’ll know exactly what to do!

To get set up, have a trash can nearby where you can discard the wallpaper that you remove from the wall. It’s also a good idea to put a drop cloth down on your floors to protect them since wallpaper that’s removed has adhesive on the back that can transfer to your floors if dropped on them. Then…

1. Start Steaming at a Bottom Seam

Starting at a bottom seam between two strips of wallpaper, steam that area thoroughly with your steamer. Using a small putty knife, try to get the blade under the steamed wallpaper so you can start pulling the sheet of wallpaper up at the corner. If you can’t get the corner up, steam it some more and try again. Once I have the first bit of corner pulled up, I continue pulling the sheet with my left hand as it loosens from the wall and use the putty knife in my right hand to get under the paper and help separate it from the wall:

 

2. Alternate Between Steaming on Top of the Paper & Under It

Once you’re able to pull the corner up, continue steaming that sheet of paper by alternating between steaming on top of the sheet (move the steamer back and forth over the area):

and underneath it (being careful not to steam your hand):

Handheld steamers don’t have a huge water tank so I keep a watering can with a small spout next to me for easy water refills so I can keep going without continually running to the sink.

If you’re really lucky, you might be able to use this technique to get your wallpaper off in large sheets like I did in our laundry room:

but the reality is that it’s not always that easy! Sometimes it will come off in little pieces no matter what wallpaper removal trick you try. A lot of it has to do with whether the walls were properly prepped before wallpapering or not. If it doesn’t come off quite as easily as you’d like here’s what to do:

 

3. Use a Putty Knife to Help With More Stubborn Pieces

As you pull up the wallpaper, you’ll likely have some stubborn pieces where the backing stays stuck to the wall. This is often the case with vinyl wallpaper that’s often used in bathrooms and kitchens – it can be really stubborn! Often you can easily peal the top layer of wallpaper off but then you have large areas where the wallpaper backing is stuck to the wall. In this case I’ll take a damp sponge or rag and soak the paper, letting it sit, soaked with water for several minutes while you work on another spot. Then, come back to it and steam the paper backing (starting at the edges) while using a putty knife to lift it off:

Instead of the putty knife you could also try {this long handled scraper} that gets great reviews.

 

4. Remove the Wallpaper Glue

Now that you know how to remove wallpaper, what about the wallpaper glue residue?! Once all of your wallpaper is removed, you’ll typically still have residual wallpaper adhesive on the wall that you’ll want to get off before painting or re-wallpapering. I simply fill a bucket with warm water and use a dampened sponge to scrub the remaining glue off – you can see the portion where I removed the glue from the wall on the left and the portion I hadn’t yet gotten to on the right:

If there’s a LOT of glue left behind after removing your wallpaper, before I scrub it off with my sponge, I lightly steam one area of the wall at a time and move my putty knife over the wall to scrape off the excess glue:

and then follow it up by scrubbing the rest off with my sponge and warm water.

 

5. Prep Before Painting or Re-Wallpapering

Wallpaper glue is tricky because even when it seems like you’ve gotten it all off, often there’s residual glue there that’s reactivated when you paint the walls (and the glue turns into a glob and messes up your paint job). So after stripping the wallpaper and scraping and scrubbing off the residual glue, I lightly sand the walls and then brush on a coat of Zinsser ALLPRIME Water-Base Problem Surface Sealer or Gardz Problem Surface Sealer that you can get online {here}. They seal in any residual glue and if you have any cracked or peeling drywall they seal those well too so that they’re ready to be patched and painted. Be sure to fix any holes, cracks, or other wall imperfections before you paint or wallpaper too.

After I finishing removing the wallpaper in our laundry room I… added wallpaper right back to it – ha! I’m a glutton for punishment I guess 🙂 Here’s a reminder of what it looked like “before”:

and here’s what it looks like now:

It’s a really hard space to get a photo of since it’s tiny and has no natural light but hopefully you can still see the big difference that the new wallpaper made! I wasn’t a fan of the mirrored doors that the washer and dryer are behind so I actually wallpapered those too after coating them with a good primer!

If you’re re-wallpapering there are other types of wallpaper to consider too such as peel and stick wallpaper! It’s a great beginner’s way to try out wallpapering since you use a lot of the same techniques to hang it but it’s easier because you’re not rushing against the clock to hang it before the glue on the back of your wallpaper dries. Check out {this post on peel and stick wallpaper} to get the step by step of how to hang it!

Along with re-wallpapering with {this blue floral wallpaper}, I added {this new rug} as a doormat, a set of {these blue & white striped storage bins} above the washer, and swapped out the old, dated light fixture for {this brass star flush mount fixture}:

 

Other Methods to Try for Removing Wallpaper

While using a handheld steamer is the best way I’ve found to remove wallpaper, there are other ways you can try too if you want to experiment with what works best for you including:

1. A Wallpaper Steamer

A steamer that’s specifically made to steam wallpaper like {this one} has a rectangular shaped attachment that you put on the wall to trap the steam and make it more effective. I’ve tried using one before but found that I did better with a handheld steamer that allowed me to steam under the sheet I was pulling up. It does have the advantage of having a much bigger water tank though so refills aren’t needed nearly as frequently. If you go this route, be sure to get one with a hose that’s long enough to reach the top of your walls.

2. Scoring + Chemical Stripper

Another option is to “score” your wallpaper using {this tool} that makes small holes in it followed by a wallpaper stripper like {this one} or {this one} that you spray or sponge on. I know some people who use this as their go-to method but for me it was really slow and the scoring tool left a few marks on my wall. Plus I’d rather use plain steam than a chemical stripper. If you use a chemical stripper, be sure to follow the safety instructions using safety goggles and gloves.

3. Hot Water in a Spray Bottle

This is definitely the cheapest route to go if you don’t already own a handheld steamer. Simply put fairly hot water in a spray bottle (or some people use equal parts water and fabric softener or equal parts water and vinegar), spray one area of your wall at a time, let it sit, and then use a scraper to remove the wallpaper. I removed the first half of the wallpaper in our foyer this way so it’s definitely do-able but I experimented with my handheld steamer for the first time on the second half and it moved things along much more quickly for me.

I hope you all found this to be helpful! If you want some wallpaper removing practice, come on over (ha – I wish!). While I’ve tackled our laundry room, breakfast nook (you can see that {here} if you missed it), powder room, and kitchen I still have my girls’ bathroom and our master bathroom to go….