Well! I have the first section of the walls in my library stripped down to the plaster. From the outside in there were: vinyl wallpaper, light green paint, pink textured stripe wallpaper, and green stripe/pink rose medallion wallpaper. The last wallpaper was pasted right on the plaster - no paint or primer at all. Here are some photos of the process:


































You can see the various layers in the photos. Notice the darker area on the plaster in the photo with the ceiling moulding in it - I think there was a roof leak at one time, but obviously that has been taken care of. Also, it looks like the moulding was put on right on top of the wallpaper. There was even a border on top of the first layer - the one with the roses on it, but I couldn't get a good picture of it. Maybe as I do the rest of the room I can get a better look at it. It had only about an inch and a half showing below the moulding and the rest of it was beneath it. You can also see the darker paint under the lower moulding by the door - originally dark brown - or what can be seen under the white. And NOT that puke brown the quarter round has been painted!

Here are some pictures of the wall after the paper is gone and it's been cleaned. I found some Natura stuff at Home Hardware that doesn't need to be rinsed off like TSP does. It seems to work ok. I also got some primer and drywall compound to fix the numerous holes. If you look close you might be able to see the hair (horsehair I think) in the plaster! You can also see the cracks in the wall above the doorway. This is due to the old original chimney that was closed off but not removed. It's weighing down the structure and, of course, creating those cracks. I'm looking into seeing what would be involved in getting it removed.






Please excuse the lame layout - I'm not good at this, but I'm trying to get better!