How to Remove a Wallpaper Border Without a Steamer

I have already written about how to remove wallpaper when using a rented wallpaper steamer, but I still had some wallpaper border left over the top of our kitchen cabinets. I did not have the capability to lift a steamer onto the cabinet and use it (unsafe!) so I researched other avenues. I came across two products at our local True Value and brought them home to test.

First, I used the Paper Tiger and scoured the border. It was fairly easy to use, although difficult to cut into the wallpaper closer to the ceiling because of its circular cover. Here is what the wallpaper looked like after scouring it.

Once that was done, all I had to do (or so I thought) was spray on the wallpaper removal gel (the DIF product) and let it soak before using a paint scraper to remove the wallpaper off from the wall.

Very similar to what happened with the wallpaper steamer, which makes me wonder if it might just be the wallpaper we had, it came off into two layers: 1) the image and 2) the adhesive behind the image.

Because of having to repeat the process twice, it took me almost four hours to finish taking off the wallpaper border in the kitchen. If you are capable of using/renting a steamer, PLEASE DO. It is less time consuming than this way. This is the aftermath of messiness:

You can also tell how terrible our wall cabinets were put together.

Once the wallpaper was removed, I had to go through and wipe down the walls with simple hot water and soap to remove the sticky residue and sand down some areas for the new paint color.

I am hoping a new paint job in the kitchen will liven up the outdated cabinets for the time being and make it more connected to the rest of the house. Look forward to the finished paint job result!