Hi Katie, my apologies for the delay in responding to your comment. I've been traveling over the holidays and rare access to a computer. I did end up caulking the gap between the baseboard and the wall. For cleaning gunk out of cracks, I'm starting to like using the bamboo skewers used for grilling that you can get at the supermarket. I had a batch of them in my cupboard and gave one a try and it worked so well, that I'm using them first in situations where I need something pointy. The bamboo is soft enough that it doesn't scratch anything, and I can dampen it and it'll pick up extraneous paper that's stuck in the crack. For some pieces of gunk in the crack, I also used a pair of needle-nose pliers, to extract the pieces. And, while I don't know if it's a bad thing to do, sometimes a piece of gunk would just fall more into the gap between the baseboard and wall, and I left it there. :-) I figured it would just get sealed under the line of caulk afterwards. Wear eye protection! Even if you don't think you need it, wear safety goggles, or at least your eyeglasses if you wear glasses. One day, I was caulking the baseboards in one of our bedrooms for the insulating value, and as I dragged my finger along, a chip of paint flew up off the baseboard toward my face. Since then, I always wear my goggles. About tips for caulking: - Do a search on YouTube for caulking. It really helped me to see videos of people actually doing it. - Get a good caulking gun. I got one from Lowes or Home Depot (I forget which one--I've been in and out of each so much these past weeks!) that was in the $10 range. I love its trigger mechanism. - Hold the gun at a 45 degree angle to both the wall and to the baseboard gap. I mean, this is in three dimensions: as you put the tube tip to the baseboard gap, make sure that it is a 45 degree angle between it and the vertical wall and a 45 degree angle between it and the horizontal-running gap line. (Hope that makes sense--it's hard to explain in words vs a picture. That's why the YouTube videos are so helpful.) - Do not make the hole in the tube too large when you cut it. The hole should not be larger than the gap you're trying to fill. And there was a post on one of these forums about tapering the hole that I thought was useful. While I can't find the posting this moment, I'll add the link when I locate it. Hope this helps! Lee

Karen: which technique are you doing? Textured wallpaper over old wallpaper? Or one of the others? Rereading my post (after getting some sleep) it reads more like I am asking about texturing with drywall compound (like imitating venetian plaster, or a tuscan stucco look). PLEASE come back and tell me how it went! I have seen the paper bag technique done on home improvement shows. ItÂs actually simpler. Dipping in poly would be very messy and sticky. You adhere the paper with latex glaze or acrylic matte medium. Then cover with the same clear liquid to seal it in before painting. My hesitation with doing that is if someday down the road you didnÂt want such a texture, you could NEVER get it off. The entire room would have to be skimcoated by someone with the skills to get it really flat and smooth. I donÂt think I want to go that route. At least with drywall compound texturing it could be sanded off smooth easily.

I don't find stripping wallpaper to be a tough job at all if you either rent a professional steamer, or buy one ($50 either way). If you're physically fit (or a little unfit heh heh) it's an easy job. I've done A LOT of it! So my first advice would always be to remove the old. If there isn't paint on it, it will come down really easily with a steamer...and if you want to check that...scrape the wall gently with a knife, breaking through the paper layer (first at least) and then hold a steam iron on high on it for a second...is it bubbling???? Anyhoo, let's say you don't believe me, or you just don't want to do it right :oP Is the wall paper in great condition? Are there any lose areas? If so, those need to be glued down again with wall paper glue. Then, yes you can go over the paper, and try to keep your seams off of their seams (several layers with seams ends up showing quickly). That means you might want to start with a funny cut...not the norm for paper hanging, but the way to do it if you are going over more than one layer of a same sized paper. This will keep your seams off of theirs. I'd only put on two strips of paper, then walk away from the job and leave it for a couple of days. You'll see if it's going to hold (sometimes the weight of the paper pulls the old stuff off). If that holds, go for it :) And yes, most likely the good quality textured paper will hide wall issues :)

Thank you. Christopher - is cleaning unnecessary do you think? Lisa - the wallpaper in the room I want to do first is in in really good condition., The paper in the hallway is not, and there is a bathroom with awful pinkish wallpaper with fans on it, and a bright red rug, I just have no idea right now what to do about that. I doubt I'd bother to paint it as just a little coat of paint won't help it. We just use another bathroom for now because no one can stand to go in that one! Bossy - I get what your saying, but we have major things that need addressed first (we just had a huge retaining wall next to the house fail for instance), spending money and time on a cosmetic fix like drywall just isn't up there in priority right now, especially because it's complicated by really nice woodwork that could potentially be damaged by removing. However, I really don't want to look at the dark ugly wallpaper anymore and my kids really want their room decorated a way they like. This is work and money for a less than perfect solution but when I know the perfect solution is a loooong way off, it's acceptable to me. I don't want to be looking at this paper 5 years from now because we intended to get to it "soon". While I hope we can, I don't want to count on it at this point. When I married my DH the walls the bedroom in his house were painted over wallpaper. I never even noticed until he pointed it out to me, so I do have an idea of what it will look like if I can do it right.