Redoing a Textured Wall

Get the room ready. Remove the furniture from the room and lay dropcloths down underneath the wall where you will be working and tape them into place with masking tape. Put on safety glasses to protect your eyes from flying chips and put on some gloves.

Start in one corner of the wall. Spray a mixture of hot water and wallpaper remover (fabric softener works as well) onto the texture. Let this sit for about five-10 minutes. Begin scraping away the texture with a drywall knife or a floor scraper. A 4-inch blade is easier to work with, but a 6-inch blade will get the job done faster. Do not scrape too hard, you may puncture the drywall. Scrape upwards and angle the knife or scraper up -- not straight. Continue until all the texture has been removed.

Patch any areas if necessary. If you did punch through the drywall, or scratched it badly, fill in these areas with some joint compound. Spread a little on a trowel or a putty knife and fill in the hole. Scrape away the excess. Let this dry and then sand the patched areas flat with a fine or medium grade of sandpaper. You can also use sandpaper to help remove any texture bits that you may have missed.

Repaint the wall. Prime and paint the wall to your desired color. Primer will help the paint adhere better and will also cover any remaining color that you may have missed when scraping.

Clean up the room. Use a shop vac to pick up the debris from the scraping. You may be able to fold up the dropcloths to catch most of it, but some will fall out. Remove all the dirt and debris and then put the furniture back into the room.