Yes, it probably would work as well as DIF (or starch or vinegar)-soaked cloths. But I can vouch for the quality of the sheets. Looks like they'll last a good long time. Wish I could figure out how to get them to stick to the ceiling. Just me doing it and it's been tedious, let me tell you, getting wallpaper off the ceiling! What were they thinking???

Mix vinegar into water at a ratio of 1 part vinegar to 4 parts water. I am in the process of removing the backing now from our 20 year old wallpaper. First time I have ever done it. The wallpaper came off easily with this solution, in some spots the backing came with it, in other areas it didn't. I am using a plastic spatula to gently scrape the backing paper off the drywall. We were told by a lady at Lowes who had hung wallpaper as a job for years that you can put new border over old (and I am assuming just over the paper backing if you get one that is thick and textured that it won't show through. We will be trying that in our breakfast area where we just had border. Again the paper came off easily but the backing won't budge. My new border is wider and thicker so we think we will be okay. Hope yours turns out okay.

I fell in love with De Gournay but when I got the quote for my relatively small powder room, it was gaspingly high. I found a source on Etsy which was a Chinese company which provided custom silk Chinoiserie wallpaper. It wasn't cheap but it is beautiful and was probably about 25% of what De Gournay would have cost.

I would focus on 3 colors predominantly- black for furniture and curtains (existing unless you’re looking to change window treatments too), warm gray for carpet, paint and background colors and gold for accents. I would pull the carpet color from the color of the leaves on the wall paper to tie it together. Same for paint. I’d take one of the colors you like from the paper and match it to paint. I would recommend pottery barn furniture in black - it will look much better than the mid tone gold wood pieces the previous owner had.