pre 1970 home means your in for a mess, if that is when the wallpaper was installed. good news is you dont know when it was LOL here is what to expect. anything!!! one job will peal off the walls no problem, the next one will require the removing all of the drywall and starting over. pre 1970 drywall is a gamble of its own, any moisture on some of it will create blisters (paper coming loose from the gypsum) so just the moisture from the solutions to remove wallpaper is enough to destroy old drywall in some cases, depending on if it was primed, or even painted before wallpaper. also keep in mind that much of the old drywall had asbestos in it/ and many paints before 1978 had lead in them. so any work done to an old house needs to be done carefully. many contractors dont care about the particles that are left in your home for you to deal with. so when you are looking at estimates, you need to think about the knowledge of contractor, as well as the additional costs that a good one will incure, including test kits for your older home project, and the possible need for air scrubbers, suits, and masks.

As someone who has done alot of wallpapering over the years (probably too much!), I don't think I would turn the corner and paper the edges of the window because of condensation and cold weather (if that is applicable at all) as it will just become "unglued" over time. I've always just done the walls (not wrapping the corners) near the windows. I always had some kind of window covering that covered the sides and top of the window, though, so it wasn't necessary to cover the inside of the window. That being said, if cold and condensation isn't an issue, I think it would look really nice to see it like that!

Oh, Barbie!!! Thank you for that link. That was a wonderful webpage - full of great ideas -- I LOVED it! I know that our cabinets will be trimmed out on top (which is the bottom of the soffit), but what a great idea to trim them out on the top (at the ceiling) too. And painting the soffit the same color of the cabinets is also a great idea (I was planning to paint them the color of the walls)... it may be a little tricky because they are off white, glazed-with-ivory cabinets... but I am pretty good with stuff like that, I think I could get pretty close. I know about Wallwords and Wallgraffiti, etc., and I have actually been toying with something like that, too... although I am planning to wait till the kitchen is done and decide then. Again, I can't thank you enough for that wonderful link! Lynn

Take a look at what banks have up on their walls. Sherwin Williams usually has books with commercial wallpaper.....usually it's vinyl, low sheen, with some sort of fabric back...extremely durable. Patterns are usually subtle, mostly textured.. Many of the commercial 'papers' come in very wide widths which are difficult for a DIYer without extensive experience, but that may depend on the lengths you would need. You might look for a grasscloth look which seems to stand up to some handling. I've had a grasscloth vinyl up in a long narrow hallway standing up to packages, grandchildren, dogs for almost 15 years and it looks brand new. If it were paint it would have had to have been redone several times.