Once upon a time in the 1980s when wallpaper was a hot home décor trend, a home was built with wallpaper attached directly to the drywall. One day, the new owner of the house, CraftyGalDIY (a.k.a. me) decided to give the bathroom a makeover. First step, ditch the wallpaper. Off to the store I went to get a scorer, wallpaper remover and paint.

Like a good little, amateur DIYer, I scored the wallpaper, steamed it and began to pull it off the walls. Down came the wallpaper and part of the drywall paper, too. Since no primer was applied to the wall before the wallpaper was put up, the wallpaper became a part of the drywall. Frustrated, I dropped the project and began to really hate my bathroom.

Image from CraftyGalDIY

I happened upon a Drywall Texturing thread started by homedepot.com community member tbsmiley33, seeking advice on texturing bathroom walls using the Spanish Knife method of applying joint compound. I was immediately interested since I was having some drywall issues of my own.

Paul, another community member, shared a link to DrywallSchool.com. The website provides step-by-step instructions on drywall texturing and a video tutorial on the Spanish Knife technique.
Call it a DIY epiphany, but I believed this Forum thread provided the solution to my problem with my bathroom walls. Could I really solve my drywall and wallpaper problems by using joint compound?  I checked out the instructions on Drywall School.com, made my shopping list, went shopping at my local The Home Depot store, then returned home to try to fix my walls…fingers crossed.

Did it work? Is my love-hate-relationship with my bathroom over? Check back next week for part 2 of How to Use Joint Compound To Repair Damaged Drywall and Create Texture.

Have you created texture on wall using spackle or joint compound?

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