What to do With Outdated Wallpaper in Your New Home

Wallpaper can create a beautiful look when it’s new, but it doesn’t take many years for it to start peeling, showing stains, or looking outdated. Fortunately, the process of improving the look is not as difficult as it might sound. There are a number of options on the table for you, and it’s just a matter of how you want to approach an update. Your own creativity will play a big part in the change, so the possibilities are only limited by your imagination. the process and how creative you can be.

Take It Down

With some time and work, you can remove the wallpaper altogether and start over with a fresh wall that you can handle however you like. The first thing you’ll need to do is to get some quality adhesive remover and a scraping tool. This will take some time. Every bit of the adhesive must be removed in order to create a clean surface for whatever new finish you choose to put up. You have to be careful not to damage the drywall as you dig into the adhesive with the sharp edge of your tool. Total removal is best if you simply don’t want wallpaper at all or if you can see that there are multiple layers of it.

Smooth It Up & Paint Over It

Another option is actually to paint over the wallpaper. With proper surface preparation, this can be done, assuming you’re not dealing with some of the old textured wallpapers that were used years ago. The most important thing is to level up the surface. If edges or seams are peeling, you’ll need to get those flattened back down and re-glued. This will add some time to the job because you must let the glue dry completely before painting. In addition, you’ll have to make two or even three coats of paint to make sure that the old pattern is not visible at all. As long as you only have only a thin layer of wallpaper—be it single layers or a couple of thin layers—this can turn out nicely.

Smoothing with Beadboard

One of the very popular materials in use today is beadboard. This is simply textured paneling that is often used to cover the lower portion of the wall, starting at the chair rail and going down to the baseboard. You can also cover the entire wall with beadboard and give it a warm look. What makes beadboard such a great choice for replacing wallpaper is that it covers all the texture, color, and flaws in the old wallpaper with a smooth surface that can be painted, stained, or treated with any of a variety of other materials. When covering only the lower wall with it, you can add crown molding to match it and paint the wall between them with a contrasting color that really makes the whole room distinctive and beautiful.

Re-Paper

We’ve mentioned that some walls may have multiple layers of old wallpaper on them, and there’s no reason you can’t repeat that yourself. If you’re in favor of the look of wallpaper but just not this wallpaper, you can come back in with a new layer. Of course, it will require some prep work just as if you were painting over the wallpaper. Old wallpaper peeling will eventually damage the new wallpaper, so you must take care of all seams, corners, and other flaws before applying the new layer. Again, this takes time; any repairs must dry completely before you can apply new wallpaper. Otherwise, the moisture that normally evaporates during drying will be stuck behind the old paper, creating bubbles or even damp spots.

Let An Expert Handle It!

All of these upgrades have one thing in common: they all take quite a bit of work and money. You may have to tear down old paper, re-glue damaged sections, scrape old glue off, or paint the wall several times to get it to look the way you want it. It can be fairly expensive, but as much as anything it can be very time-consuming as well.

That’s where you may find that hiring a professional painting contractor is the best option for creating a new, beautiful look for your wallpapered room.

Homeowners in East Greenwich have found that renovating their homes is a much easier process when they let a qualified painting contractor take care of the tough jobs, with wallpaper topping the list. Experienced inside house painters have the tools, skills, experience, and most important, the time to do the job right without disrupting the normal routine of your home for days at a time.

Two Brothers Painting has worked throughout East Greenwich on projects just like yours, and we’re ready to earn your business. With a long list of satisfied clients, we’ll have more ideas for how to deal with your old wallpaper than other inside house painters in the area.

Don’t let that peeling, stained, faded, or outdated wallpaper ruin the look of your room for one more day. Give us a call to sit down and talk about your project. We’ll review color options and build a schedule that’s just right for your home.