How To Remove a Chair Rail

Well, this is offiially my One Room Challenge Week 2 post. It was actually last week but you know, life. It’s a few days late but I’m okay with that. We had a great family weekend filled with Easter Bunnies, eggs, family and church. So now I’ll indulge you with what has been happening in my son’s room.

When we moved into our home there was a chair rail in EVERY room. I’m not even exaggerating. The living room, the dining room, all bedrooms, the family room, kitchen and even the bathrooms!

I don’t mind chair rails, but in every room is a bit excessive. So we have slowly been removing them as I see fit when I repaint a room. I removed it from our family room and my daughter’s nursery and now my son’s room.

So now I consider myself a little bit of a pro on taking off a chair rail. I used to just wing it and then I would end up with more damage than I hoped. So here are my tricks and steps to taking off a chair rail with minimal damage!

Using a utility knife, go along the top and the bottom of the chair rail. This will cut the caulk and any wood that is stuck to the paint on the wall. Leaving you with less peeling of sheetrock layers.

Then using a sturdy putty knife get in behind the chair rail, and then using a screwdriver or, anything else to pry it off, put the screwdriver on the putty knife using that as a block. If you didn’t use the putty knife and just started to pry it off you would leave more dents or even holes in the wall from the screwdriver.

Move along the rest of the chair rail prying it off. Hopefully it will come off easy with little damage.

Sometimes you might have a spot the peels, that’s okay you have to fill in the nail holes anyway the peeling will be an easy fix if its small.

Then start layering your spackling paste, I like Dap Dry Dex because it goes on Pink and turns white when it’s dry, going over the holes and any spots that need to be repaired. Work in thin layers and add layers as they dry as needed.

Once dry, sand it smooth.

Then prime your spackle and once dry it’s time to paint!

My whole trick is using the putty knife to protect the the wall and I pry off the chair rail. Before I would not use anything and I would leave large holes in the wall from my screwdriver or hammer working the chair rail off!

Next week I’ll be painting! I can’t wait to give this room some deep rich color!

Don’t forget to head on over to Calling it Home to see the other One Room Challenge participants!

If you missed Week 1 with all the before pictures and design plan you can check it here!