I have used removable wallpaper with out any damage to the underneath surface. I tried fabric and starch and had no luck what so ever it was hard to get smooth and uncreased and it fell off with in hours:(. SW has lovely, but not cheap, removable wall papers to try. Good luck

Sometimes it's better to live with a design element for a while and see how much it really bothers you before jumping into a questionable and possibly expensive fix. You know that this is probably just a transitional home for you, so why not use decor items in happy colors and/or bright white and add lots of lamps to lighten your space instead.

roarah, thanks for your reply. Yeah, I'd always wondering about the fabric and starch thing, but had never tried it or knew anyone who had tried it. Sounds like it's not all it's cracked up to be.

Maybe I'll look into the removable wallpaper option.

I would be afraid to put starch as I'm sure that it would penetrate the wood. What color are the walls above the wainscoting? Is that color a nice color? Do you have the option of painting it?

If not, I'd work around it with fabrics and lots of lighting, including some up lighting behind plants, etc. If you fill the room with lots of pretty interesting things, the ugly wainscoting will just fade into the background because the eye sees the things in front of it and if they are really pretty, the wall dissappears. It's good it's just half a wall as that will be easy to cover up with furnishings and plants and if you're lucky you'll only have a little bit showing when finished decorating the room.

Do not apply anything on top of old woodwork. It can soften and destroy the varnish and then the landlord will keep all of your damage deposit. And, it might cause enough damage that he'd take you to court to recoup additional costs as well. Old woodwork is a high cost asset to any older home.

Landlords typically would not allow even "temporary" alterations to their homes. For good reason.

There's going to be no way to lighten it up. It's basically what was the attic of a Cape Cod style house and it has a very small living room that's all chopped up (like a big walled-off bumpout that was built around the chimney). No windows in living room. There's maybe like 2 feet of wall on top of this wainscoting and then the walls curve and/or angle in this rest of the way, so it's not really 8 foot ceilings throughout the place. I'm really not going to be able to hang pictures or mirrors or anything because there's nothing I could hang in that small of a space. As far as lamps, plants, I'll be honest I don't know how I'm even going to be able to see in this place. I will probably be able to get a small sofa and TV in the living room and that's about it. There is no room even for end tables on each end of the couch. So lighting is a problem, and there's going to virtually not be many places I can even set up lots of my things to try to pretty it up because what furniture I stuff in there will be needed for utilitarian purposes.

There's basically no kitchen storage. There's a stove, 48" sink base cabinet (which wouldn't hold a lot and it's so grody, I wouldn't put anything but cleaning supplies in it), and then a refrigerator. That's it for the kitchen. No island, no upper cabinetss, nothing. I've got a "commercial" look shelf unit that I'm going to take to put my food on and I'm going to have to get a cart to put a microwave on and then I'm looking at portable kitchen islands so that I'll have somewhere to prep food.

Oh, and the "lovely" refrigerator has a strip of Velcro holding it closed. My husband wants to buy an apartment size fridge to put in its place.

I'm going to go get some cheese for my whine now! LOL. Sorry for the whine-fest.

Forget about the wallpaper and get some lamps - a torchiere lamp, wall mount plug-ins, the more the better.

I've seen the starched fabric, it is very hard to get it right.

Hang fabric across the whole wall. Since there is no place to hang art, you could do a print fabric and then you wouldn't need any art. Or, you could go with the white panels from Ikea and hang the art in front of them, from the ceiling.

If you don't want to use fabric, I would suggest hanging mirrors. All different sizes, shapes, heights, etc. would create a lot of interest.

If you need more "order" you could by a bunch of the cheapo full length mirrors and hang them all the way across the wall.

If you or hubby know how to cut some strips of wood, you could make a gigantic "window" frame and fill it with the 12" x 12" mirrors ($10 for 6 at the depot). Someone just did this on the last Design Star and I loved it.

Btw, I am a paper hangar. If you really want to paper, here are your concerns: Wallpaper paste is little more than flour and water. The paste itself is not harmful, it's the water that might damage the finish. If you have a polyurethane finish, I seriously doubt there would be any harm. If it's just an oil or wax finish, the water is going to affect the finish.

I would recommend pasting a tiny bit of paper in an inconspicuous location. Leave it there for a few weeks. Any damage it is going to do, will occur during that time.

The other concern about wallpapering, is the likelihood of scratching the heck out of the paneling while trimming the wallpaper. Especially if you use that heavy vinyl beadboard stuff. You have to dig in pretty hard with your razor to cut through that, and you are going to cut into the paneling below.

Is the wainscotting ridged, like beadboard? I think every bit of wainscotting I've ever seen was beadboard or similar. Wallpaper or starched fabric would be hard to do over the ridges.

I once "wallpapered" a room with brown wrapping paper and thumbtacks. It was a darn sight better than the existing wallpaper, with it's design of sponge-painted overlapping rainbows in shades of pastel blue, pink and green.

You might consider covering the wainscotting with butcher's paper, or any paper you can get in a wide width and on a roll. You could use pins or thumbtacks on the top edge of the wainscotting, where it is parallel to the floor--the holes should be next to invisible when you remove the pins.

Or use fabric, as Cindyloo suggests, but no starch, just pins or tacks to hold it on.

And lamps. Table lamps, floor lamps, lamps that throw light up to the ceiling and other lamps that throw light downward.

If you've got two feet of wall space, you could do an arrangement of small mirrors, or look for the long, narrow ones designed for over a buffet or sideboard. There's art that will fit in that space, if you look for it. A collection of family photos in matching frames (which might make the place feel more like home), a fabric wall hanging

Thanks for the additional suggestions. I definitely won't do anything with wallpaper. And, the wainscotting does have ridges. That's why I originally thought of the "beadboard" wallpaper. I thought since that wasn't smooth that the texture of the wallpaper would maybe disguise the fact that it wasn't hung on regular drywall.

Some of you mentioned hanging fabric all along the walls. I had already though about that, but it would be a maze of curtain holders and such because, as I said above, it was an attic and there's all kinds of bumpouts and small nooks (that really aren't big enough to be usable). And this is through the whole apartment, so it would probably take like 50 curtain rods, the way you would have to swing it around all those notches and stuff.

There may not even be 2 feet above it before the ceiling slopes up as far as hanging things. I'd say maybe between 18" to 2'. And as far as any kind of lamps, the guy admitted that half the outlets don't even work. I'm telling you, the place is like a cave in there (and in a really bad part of town to boot).

He didn't require a lease and I only told him Friday I would take the place, but I'm really thinking it is just not going to work for me. Besides the ugliness, which is bad enough (and I'm already very depressed because of my marital situation), I'm really worried about the neighborhood as far as safety. I've posted another thread here about how to get my dog up and down the steps. Since I have a dog, I would have to be out after dark to take her out to the potty.

Anyway, thanks for the suggestions. I guess I'll either accept it as is, or maybe just have to back out of moving there.

I made the decision not to move to this particular apartment. I do appreciate everyone's input, though.