Updated: March 2, 2023
Are you wondering if you can remove peel and stick wallpaper? Will it damage your paint? Your walls? How hard is it to remove the wallpaper? Read on for my experience.
The cactus peel and stick wallpaper came down last week.
I liked this wallpaper. So, why?
We had water damage in our home over the winter of 2018. We had to replace the trim piece around the floor, and when removing the trim, the bottom part of some portions of the wallpaper were damaged. Two of the pieces were wrinkled, bubbled, and peeling off.
I am pretty certain this did not have anything to do with the integrity of the wallpaper. It was likely damaged by the way the trim was taken off. I moved the bed in front of the wrinkled wallpaper and tried to forget about it for the time being.
Still…. it bothered me that it was there. I knew the paper was peeling behind the bed, even if nobody else knew.
Update: Here is the refresh of his room with two tone paint all finished!
The damage to the wallpaper was on two pieces, so I did consider replacing just those pieces. However, this wallpaper came as a mural and I didn’t know if that was even possible. And although I liked the cactus wall, but sometimes, this room was jarring when compared to the rest of our home.
It wasn’t cohesive and that bothered me.
It was time to remove the peel and stick wallpaper!
How To Remove Peel And Stick Wallpaper
If you are curious if peel and stick wallpaper damages paint and how the wallpaper looks when it comes off, this is my experience:
The first piece was great. The second piece: Not ideal.
I started very slowly, peeling from the top down. The first pieces came off clean. After the second piece I saw drywall and paint pieces coming up. The drywall made me nervous. So I tried starting at the bottom and went up, slowly peeling it up towards the ceiling. That worked for a bit, and then it pulled the drywall and paint again. So I’m not sure that the direction you pull in matters.
So, back to your question. Does removable wallpaper damage paint? Sometimes, it can.
All this to say, if you’re going to put on removable wallpaper, be okay with the fact that you may have to paint the wall after you take down the wallpaper. It’s not a gurantee- after all, half of my pieces came off with no damage!
don’t know exactly why some pieces peeled off the wall and paint and why other pieces didn’t. This wallpaper in Leo’s bedroom was on the wall less than a year.
Does Wallpaper Ruin Paint?
You can see it’s not disastrous. I will still happily use this again in the future, even if when I remove peel and stick wallpaper it nicks up the walls just a little. The damage to these walls is something I can repair myself for maybe $20 in supplies, and I have the same paint on hand. You just need to have the time and the patience for dealing with that.
The next weekend I patched this up, and decided to go in the opposite direction of a focal wall. I wanted two tone painted walls! I had my painter paint the top half Sherwin Williams Extra White. (See more about extra white in my home here).
The bottom got a fresh coat of the same color – Sherwin Williams Ice Cube. I snapped a quick picture of how the room looks currently – without art or anything up on the walls yet, just unstaged but already a breath of fresh air!
Click below on the link to see his updated room! I have been showing the process over on my Instagram stories about arranging the furniture in here and we are just about done!
See Leo’s Two Tone Painted Walls
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If you are going to remove peel and stick wallpaper, my only advice is to go slow and steady, and hope for the best. I hope this post helps!
Now go see his finished room two tone paint, here!
Painting Our White Island Blue
Sherwin Williams Extra White and Ice Cube
I love this updated, clean look. The room looks amazing!!! Bravo…
Thank you! Yes it is a cleaner look. I was sad to lose the paper because it was fun, but I am happy with the change.