I also would love to remove paper from plaster walls in several rooms - but I'm afraid to... Long-ago PO's previously paneled over 2 rooms, (suspicious, much?), the only one without that "bandaid" has very thick paper - applied with at least a 1" overlap. It'd been painted over - & sprayed with what I assume was ceiling texture gunk? I scraped/sanded the hard scratchy bumps off & repainted. Both walls & ceiling have this paper - was this something sold for this purpose - to hide/cover, (or egad, "retain"?) crumbling plaster? I know it's probably not that bad - only other projects are keeping me from it, not fear, lol. On a side note... That's one more reason why plaster is better than drywall! I HAD to get rid of ugly wallpaper in a downstairs bath - tried an area & it pulled right off.. Good, right? Wrong. The floppers had put in drywall & papered directly to it without priming at all. Pulled a layer of "sheet" off the "rock", leaving a rough exposed-paper layer. Why go to the trouble to drywall, then apply (textured vinyl) wallpaper directly to it, so that removing the paper would literally destroy the walls? That's the difference between flippers & floppers. (Sorry for getting off topic & ranting a bit, but if it'd been plaster...).

Update: I spoke to someone in customer service yesterday and they are working on getting my order out. I received one wt this a.m. out of the 6 ordered. I asked for a discount because they did not live up to the shipping guarantee as promised and am awaiting word on that because she needs to speak to a higher up. In the meantime, they called this a.m. to let me know that the thermal liner I ordered on 1 shade is not available and that I'd have to change my option on that one. It is 3 weeks after my order, so I am disappointed that they are just noticing that now. I was under the impression from the above posting and email I received that my order was being taken care of, only to find out another detail had slipped through the cracks. I am trying to be patient but I have had too many snafus in too short a time period. The fact that my kitchen was only half delivered last week and then I got stood up yesterday on the redelivery, and since I was shorted on my kitchen/den floor, which install has now been delayed until Fri, it is hard not to be very testy. I have been dealing with customer services, missing time at work and neglecting other things that need doing. We are so close, yet so far from done. I will keep you posted how this gets resolved.

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.

It depends a lot how the paper was put on and what kind of adhesion was used how hard you will work to get it off. When you wet it and warm it you want to get it to the point where the paper lifts right off. The issue after that will be the remaining glue. This is where it can get really hard to completely get the glue off to the point where you can paint it without disturbing the lead paint. Also, one thing you may discover is that you do not have a fine finish that will look good painted on the plaster underneath, and that there is in fact no paint at all of any kind in some rooms. They will need a new skim coat anyway. It then becomes: do you have enough glue off to adhere a skim coat? Whatever you do, just be careful. People get all bent out of shape about asbestos and mold but neither of those are really much of a danger in an acute exposure situation, but "lead stupid" is forever . It dissolves in water, it can get dispersed in the air, etc. and if you get it all over the place it can get VERY expensive and hard to clean it out of the house afterward.