I just realized I posted a photo of the "vines" stencil above and then lazygardens posted a link to it. While I'm stilling waiting for 2 more wallpaper stencils I'm leaning toward the "vines" stencil. So you think it would work? I looked at the claires willow pattern today and it is just too tiny of a pattern to make a stencil from and don't have enough of a pattern of the willow to make a decent sized stencil. On the copyright thread a link was posted to a book with william morris design stencils in it. I spent time search for more info on it but can't confirm willow is actually one of the stencil. It also appears the stencils are small. If this was a small project I would maybe buy it. Gina, when we bought this house over 25 years ago there was wallpaper everywhere. Some my DH stripped off. Some was hard to do, so he just put drywall over it. So this dining room has a double layer of drywall with wallpaper inbetween. He really wants me to stencil. I'm very tired of thinking about this but want to make a decision soon to move the remodel along. I close my eyes at might and see a slideshow of patterns until I fall asleep.

The job is a PITA for sure. I had 3 or 4 rooms to tackle in my home. I swear the paper went up over the drywall in some rooms or over the primer, hard to tell. After a few failed attemmtps at a 'fast' removal methods, I found one that worked...just requires patience. Take a test run on a 2 foot section of wall..... 1) Get a wall claw. Take a 2 foot section and claw it over and over. When you are done walk away a few minutes because when you get back you will claw it again. This step is important. 2) There will be areas where the claw does not reach, usually in corners or along the ceiling. I bought a second claw and disassebled it and mounted the claw part on a bolt. Now I had a tool to get to most of those other areas. You need not do this on the first 2 foot section, wait and make sure this method works for you first! 3) Get paper remover. I bought stuff from Sherman Williams-- their brand. Get a spray bottle...forget a garden sprayer...too messy. Fill the spray bottle with hot water from your tap. Pour in some remover...never mind measuring it out you want a very strong mix. 4) Spray the 2 foot section of wall slowly letting the spray absord as much as possible. Some will run so have a towel ready to keep the area below you dry....keep towels on the floor too. Refill your spray bottle with hot water as necesary adding remover solution. Once the entire area is wet...spray it again. 5) WALK AWAY FOR 15 MINUTES. Return ONLY after 15 minutes and spray the area again...you may grab a corner to see if the paper 'falls right off' but I doubt it will...spray it a second time and WALK AWAY FOR ANOTHER 15 minutes. **The waiting part seems to be the most important! 6) Come back and spray again. The paper should now come off fairly easily...except for the areas where the claw could not reach. Some will not simply lift off but if you swipe a 3" putty knife it will come off. 7) Spray the wall again. Run a putty knife along the wall...you are now gathering excess glue on the knife. Wipe the wall with a wet sponge ringing it out as you go along. 8) If successfull...go to the next section. You can likely work a 4 foot area at a time. 9) Once all the paper is down let everything dry for 24 hours. 10) Clean the walls with wet water and towels twice. I then used a mild solution of TSP (I believe they sell something less harsh though) and rinsed twice. ALL TSP MUST BE OFF THE WALLS! 11) Let dry 24 hours 12) Spackle and patch and sand. Repeat as necesary. 13) Prime. Let dry. You will now likely see some areas that you missed, spackle etc as necesary. 14) Paint. YOU ARE DONE! There was nothing really hard about this but you had to commit to it being a slow moving job ahead of time. Now, before I did this I would certainly try just pulling the paper off or seeing you can get it off following the instructions on the remover solution or even renting a steamer---I never tried that one myself. In my case the easy / quick methods did not work. I hope you have better luck.

I'd suggest trying a steamer to remove the wallpaper which was not mentioned in the link provided by christophern. We've found that to be the best method. It is a pain in the butt no matter how you do the job but it is way better to remove the old paper rather than doubling your future troubles. Wagner makes a wallpaper steamer and sells it for about $40.

I love wallpaper, and use it often. But I do agree about people who apply multiple layers or paint over it. Doesn't sound like any of you have ever had the challenge we had in this house. I kid you not--I counted carefully--our living room had TWELVE layers of wallpaper, several with pain on them. And we stripped every scrap of it off before doing anything further. One interesting thing I've noticed lately--the houses for sale in the neighboring town (one of the priciest, most 'desireable', most trendy in the country) are mostly showing very, very busy wallpapers lately. Guess it's coming back.