How To Remove Wallpaper From Wooden Furniture

Did you put embossed wallpaper on a piece of furniture? Did you pick up a piece of furniture that has wallpaper on it? let me show you how to remove wallpaper from wooden furniture.

How To Remove Wallpaper From Wooden Furniture

A few years ago I found a cute dresser that had quite a bit of veneer damage. I wanted to see if my embossed (Anaglypta) wallpaper would work to help cover it. By golly it did!! Butttt let’s fast forward a few years and here we are, the dresser is my 3 year old sons. He doesn’t want embossed wallpaper and I don’t really either. A few years ago a lot of people did this on furniture so hopefully if this is you, or you decide to do this, later this may be of help. It is still a great way to transform a piece of furniture but now you will know how to remove it if you change your mind!

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Supply List:

1. Metal Paint Scraper

2. Water Mister Spray Bottle

3. Razor Blade

4. Surf Prep Electric Ray (or your choice of sander)

5. White Lightening by Dixie Belle

6. Rag

7. Barn Red Chalk Mineral Paint

8. Synthetic Paint Brush

Step 1: Removing Wall Paper

This part is maybe the most time consuming of all. It’s not hard if you can catch the paper just right. As a result you will be able to pull off the paper in larger sections at a time. Normally what I do at first is take a razor blade to separate the paper from the wood and then just pull it off in sections.

Step 2: Scraping The Paper Off

Once you have pulled off the thicker top layer of paper, there will be a thin layer that was the adhesive backing still stuck to the wood. From this point you will take your mister bottle and spray the paper. As a result the water will soak into that layer and it will be super easy to just take your metal paint scraper and scrape it off.

Smoothing Out The Mess

Once you have scraped off the last bits of paper, there will be residue. I re-wet the surface and scrape it off once more. You will want to allow the surface to dry for the next step. Sanding will be your next step. I used my Surf Prep Electric Ray Sanding System. Not to go on a side tangent but this piece of machinery has been so amazing. I used an 80 grit paper and not only sanded off the residue but the appliqué as well. The appliqués was NOT doing it for me. So I just sanded it right off!!

Closing Up The Wood Grain

This particular piece of furniture has a deeper wood grain pattern. After you remove wallpaper from furniture, paint comes next in most cases.  I then take a 220 grit sandpaper to not only smooth off the piece but to help “close up” that wood grain. As a result when I paint it later the finish will be much more smooth and the deep wood grain won’t be as prominent.

Painting Your Fresh Faced Furniture

This piece will be my son’s. I allowed him to choose what color he wanted, Barn Red it is!! What a smart baby eh? I used the Barn Red and my Flat Medium Synthetic brush for this. Look at that beautifully smooth and flawless finish!!!!!

Let me know, what do you think? I will have another blog post showing the entire finished product!! This piece was a two step process, prep (remove wallpaper) and then the fun cresting can begin. I would love to hear from you. Have you used wallpaper on furniture? Have you ever had to remove wallpaper from furniture?

XOXOXO,