Repair on a Faux Finish Wallpaper

Painters got oil-based paint on this solid vinyl wallpaper. (Photo #1)  The homeowner tried several methods, but was unable to get it all off. Initially, she wanted me to remove two full-length strips and replace them. I balked at this, because 1.) It would use every scrap of paper she had left, leaving none for future repairs. 2.) There was a chance of a color difference between the paper that had been on the wall, exposed to light for several years and the paper kept on the roll in a closet. 3.) It’s hard to strip paper without doing damage to an adjoining sheet you want to keep on the wall. 4.) It’s hard to put a new wet strip of paper next to an existing dry strip and have them work together as well as if they had been hung at the same time.

So instead I did a patch.

This solid vinyl paper is fairly thick, and a patch on top would be raised up a little bit. To minimize this, I removed the thick paper backing, by soaking the paper in water and then pulling the backing away from the vinyl surface. I used a plastic dish “scrubbie” to get the final bits of paper off the back. This left a nice, thin sheet of colored vinyl paper.

There was no pattern to match, which made the task much easier. I cut a piece large enough to cover the stain, rounding the edges to minimize the chances of any edges that might want to pull up.  (Photo #2)

Then the patch was pasted with vinyl-to-vinyl paste.  (Photo #3)This special adhesive is important because regular paste won’t stick to the slick vinyl papers. Then the patch was put in place, smoothed, and excess paste was wiped off.

Voilà! You absolutely cannot see the patch!  (Photo #4)

On another area with lesser staining (not pictured), I was able to use paints and a black Sharpie to disguise the flaws.

Tags: full length strips, Sharpie, solid vinyl, vinyl-to-vinyl, wallpaper