I love it. We went to an estate sale in the Chickasaw Gardens area (of Memphis) a few months ago, and the large room added on to the back portion of the house was done entirely in grasscloth, import porcelain pieces, oil paintings, and oriental carpets over a slate floor. I swooned. DH took one look and said that he wanted that look in his office, so it definitely also appeals to men. I love the inspiration photos above...such great examples! Teacats, I have a small collection of Japanese Imari, and the room that you described sounds like my dream room in color and texture. I'll bet that it was beautiful! Scoobyruby, I think that you live in the same general area that I do? Sometimes Seabrook has grasscloth at a deep discount, especially if someone orders something and then decides to go a different direction. Check the Mendenhall location occasionally, or have them call you, and you might luck out and find some nice grasscloth for a nice price!

TSP is really pretty amazing stuff. Yes, I know it's toxic to fish, but so are many other things we do. I dispose of mine by pouring it into the yard, rather than direct to wastewater. I use it as rarely as possible, but sometimes only it will do. Sizing, I've determined, is only dilute wallpaper paste, which TSP is very effective for. If the stuff you're finding is not water soluble, then it's maybe something that went over the sizing. I also use "tincture of time" a lot. Spray water, let sit, scrape or wipe; spray water, let sit, scrape or wipe. Finally, I have one odd solution for some things... I paint over them (usually with latex), and once the paint is dry but before it's fully cured, it's easy to scrape or cut a lumpy substrate away. I use this for old, very hard paint drips and edges, for example, which come away sometimes like butter once a new bit of paint is put over top. If this glue of yours is lumpy, it might work. Karin L

If you get it off to a point where you are happy with it, then you probably will want to skim it with joint compound to smooth it out even further. Before you apply anything, be sure to paint it with Guardz or a similar product. This is to lock in the glue so that paint or joint compound does not lift off.

I ran into the problem you're having in my upstairs bath. I even used a power sander and the stuff still wouldn't come off. (Did get the little lumps n bumps smoothed out though.) Primed with oil-based primer, then when dry applied two coats of latex paint. That was 4 1/2 years ago. All is still well ;)