Strike up the band and celebrate: our once heavily wallpapered bathroom is finally wallpaper-free. After roughly 45 hours spent stripping paper across five rooms over six months, it feels amazing to have this space cleared and ready for the next phase of the renovation. In this post we’ll cover the practical steps we took and what’s next for the room, including:
- how we prepped, spackled, sanded, and primed the walls after wallpaper removal
- how we primed and painted the cream trim and the original quarter-round molding
- our paint plan to balance the bold blue floor tile by adding a softer, complementary color up high
To set the scene: this room looked tired and spotty for months. Removing the wallpaper made a dramatic difference immediately, but it also revealed how rough the drywall was underneath. In some areas steam from the shower had already loosened panels—one morning several sheets peeled away while someone was showering—so that section came off with almost no effort. For the rest of the room we used a fabric-softener spray and a clothes steamer to soften the adhesive, but this wall’s glue proved stubborn compared with other rooms in the house.
Even with steam and spray, the wallpaper mostly came off in small strips and flakes rather than large sheets. It took nearly a full day to remove all of it and get the room cleared. Once the paper was gone, the walls looked rough—lots of curled, torn areas and low spots where the top layer pulled chunks of drywall paper away.
We began the proper prep by removing remaining adhesive with warm water and vinegar. Then we sanded the walls with a sanding block to smooth high spots and rough edges. Where the drywall had dimples and small low spots we applied thin coats of spackle, scraping firmly to create an even surface without building up thick ridges. This targeted spackling approach avoided a full skim coat, which would have required far more sanding and produced a lot of dust.
After the spackle dried we sanded those areas smooth, swept and wiped the room clean, and checked for any remaining inconsistencies. The thin spackle patches blended in and helped level the wall where the wallpaper had torn sections of drywall.
Priming came next. A good primer raised the whole room’s brightness and evened out the previously yellowed and spotty surfaces. I used a quality primer and rolled it on evenly—the difference between the primed wall and the unprimed wall was striking and made the room look much fresher.
While the primer dried, we also tackled the cream trim and quarter-round. The original trim was a yellowed cream and the base shoe was natural wood, so we decided to prime and paint everything crisp white to unify the look. The process took two coats of primer and two coats of semi-gloss white trim paint. It was time-consuming—especially around window panes and corners—but the brighter white trim made the whole space feel cleaner and more modern.
Quick recap of wallpaper-removal methods we used across the house and how they performed in different rooms:
- Boiling-hot water applied with a spray bottle and manual peeling worked slowly but reliably in the powder room.
- A clothes steamer was slightly faster in the foyer but was more physically demanding for high areas.
- Warm water with soap followed by wet cloths and peeling was effective in the kitchen and comparable in speed to the hot-water method.
- Dry-peeling the top layer and then using a damp sponge to remove the backing worked in the dining room, though it wasn’t fast.
- In this en-suite bathroom, the steamer plus a 50/50 warm water and fabric softener spray surprisingly underperformed; the paper here appeared to be bonded with an exceptionally strong adhesive, so removal was slower and left the walls in rougher condition than other rooms.
Overall, effectiveness depended a lot on how the paper was glued on and how well walls had been prepared previously. No single method was an instant cure, but persistence with one of these approaches usually produced results over a full workday.
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With the prep work complete, we’re moving on to a paint treatment designed to balance the bold blue floor tile. Rather than battle the tile, we plan to draw the eye upward by adding a simple wood border near the ceiling and painting the top portion of the walls and the ceiling a soft, complementary blue. This will add vertical interest and help the room feel taller and more cohesive without competing with the floor.
Next steps: paint the primed walls, install a narrow wood trim around the top of the room, and apply the accent color above the trim and onto the ceiling. Once the tall white shower curtain goes back up and we add a few pieces of artwork, the room should feel like a completely new space.
Are you tackling a bathroom update, removing wallpaper, spackling, priming, sanding, or painting trim? Share tips and lessons learned—battle-tested advice helps anyone facing the same renovation headaches.
Note: Sherry is also posting about maternity clothing choices over on her personal blog.