When it comes to wallpaper, what goes up must eventually come down. If you’re ready to give your walls a makeover, the first step is learning how to remove wallpaper. Whether you’ll be painting or re-papering with new wallpaper, taking down the old paper is essential.

Begin by removing items from the walls and moving furniture to the center of the room, or out of the room if possible. Cover floors with drop cloths to protect them from getting wet. Shut off the electricity to the room and cover any electrical outlets or light switches.

What is the easiest way to remove wallpaper?

In most cases, your old wallpaper might already be starting to pull free of the walls. You can start the process by trying to remove the wallpaper by hand using a scraper—find the edge and try to peel it off. 

Eventually, you'll run out of paper you can peel by hand or with the scraper, at this point, you'll need to spray the wall with warm water to help separate the wallpaper adhesive from the wall.

After letting the water soak in for a few minutes, you can start to gently strip the wallpaper, it should come off easily. If you're still experiencing difficulty, consider spraying the wall several times.

In extremely tough cases, a steamer will be your best bet.

Once all the paper is gone, it is time to wash the wall so you can remove any excess primer or paste. It doesn’t matter how good you took off the paper, if you don’t wash off the old paste you are going to have problems when you try to paint or re-wallpaper.

Clean off any residue with soap and water and allow the walls to dry completely. This will ensure that you have a smooth wall before your next project!