Removing Vinyl Lettering from Walls

THIS POST IS FROM ROOM REMIX - THE BLOG .

I've had this saying on one of my walls for a while now and, even though I love the saying, I decided I was tired of having it on the wall. I assumed that removing it would be a no-brainer type of project that would take two minutes to do and that would be that. Hmmmm... not true.

I heated the letters with the blow dryer as I was pulling them off (I had heard that this was the best way to ensure that they would come off easily). This worked well, but still left a sticky residue with a clear image of where each letter had been. By the time I got to the last letter, the large H in Home, I was on a roll and got a little ahead of the blow dryer in pulling off the letter. Unfortunately I was left with exposed sheetrock as it pulled the paint off in the form of a large part of the letter. :-( At this point I knew I would be re-painting that section of the wall. I used sandpaper to sand around where the letter had removed the paint to smooth and blend it, and then used rubbing alcohol to remove the sticky residue of the rest of the letters (again, I had read that this was the thing to do). It worked, but the rubbing alcohol removed some of the paint from the wall.

After repainting, the wall looks good as new so it turned out fine, but I have to admit I was a little frustrated during the process.

I would probably use vinyl letters again at some point but not before knowing that there is a way to remove them without having to repaint. I do have flat paint on my walls, so I think this may have been the source of some of my issues? Any experience, comments, ideas on the best way to remove vinyl lettering from walls?