removing modPodge'd art

May 24, 2008 3:26 PM

my daughter 'mod podged' a collage to her wall. now that i'm remodeling, she's distraught about losing her work. anyone know a way to remove it from a painted, drywall surface? i've offered to photograph it, which i'm thinking is the only solution. any other suggestions, or just save my money for therapy? thanks.
posted by mdienno to home & garden (16 answers total)

Are you removing the wall? Can you just grab a Skil Saw and cut the collage out?

Or could the collage be cut out and then that section of the drywall replaced? We walled over a doorway once and it wasn't really that big of a deal.
posted by padraigin at 3:34 PM on May 24, 2008

For the rest of your life, you can have a daughter who thinks of her Mom as a really savvy decorator without much empathy, or a daughter who treasures you for treasuring her amateurish but well-loved collage.

This one's easy: leave the collage up. The cost in lost "feng shui" will be offset by years and years of your daughter showing her friends the evidence on the wall that her mom is the best mom ever.
posted by orthogonality at 4:32 PM on May 24, 2008 [7 favorites]

Seconding cut out that section of drywall or leave it up. If you want to repaint the rest of the wall, you could put up a moulding frame around the art.
posted by desuetude at 4:42 PM on May 24, 2008

If she still lives with you, just don't paint that wall. It's her room that SHE lives in, right? If she's distraught about you painting over it, why on earth would you? Just wait till she moves out.

If, on the other hand, she actually has moved out (college or something), the drywall-removing thing would probably work fine.
posted by showbiz_liz at 4:47 PM on May 24, 2008

I forgot to mention that the remodeling isn't because of issues with the decor, but more to do with the fact that it is a bathroom (not her room) and it is suffering from noticeable mold growth.
posted by mdienno at 4:56 PM on May 24, 2008

If it's mouldy, cutting it out and replacing it is win-win. It gets you a piece of bathroom wall without mould spores in it, and it gets her a collage that won't be further attacked by humidity.
posted by flabdablet at 5:23 PM on May 24, 2008 [1 favorite]

In agreement with everyone who says save the collage. You can do it, and as has been pointed out, new drywall isn't a big deal.

The trick will be getting the drywall free from the studs. You can do the job with two cheap hand tools--a drywall saw and a mini-hacksaw. The drywall saw is a pointy little affair that you just poke through the drywall and start sawing with. Saw out an outline that's a few inches outside of the collage. Then saw out another outline several inches larger than that. Remove all the drywall between the big outline and the little outline.

Now you can go in with your minihacksaw behind the drywall and cut the drywall nails between the drywall and the studs. The trick is to flex the blade so that it slides between the drywall and the stud. In fact, it might even be easier to just use a hacksaw blade and wrap one end of it with duct tape for a handle.

Cut the nails at the bottom first, and have someone support the collage while you cut the final nails at the top. Presto. Take the collage to a good framer, and patch the hole with mold-free drywall.
posted by bricoleur at 6:38 PM on May 24, 2008 [1 favorite]

Cut it out and hang it up separately. Should seal the edges with something, but drywall is designed to be cut if nothing else.
posted by Ironmouth at 6:40 PM on May 24, 2008

If you've got a good-quality digital camera and a tripod, you could photograph it and have it made into a canvas or giclee print at a place like iprintfromhome. Putting it onto a canvas and then having it framed would look really cool, I think. You could even have them enlarge it.
posted by Ostara at 6:43 PM on May 24, 2008

I think cutting out the collage is a good idea, just because imagine how cool it would be to have a collage with a plaster background hanging up somewhere? I don't know, I like it.
posted by Corduroy at 6:53 PM on May 24, 2008

Cutting it is a good idea, but it could be very tricky if the collage spans a stud (and fasteners) or if the drywall has been weakened by water damage. You might want to try the above "take a picture and print" first just in case.
posted by true at 6:54 PM on May 24, 2008

I don't see the details of the remodeling, but definitely leave it up!

If you're just repainting: it'll be even cooler with a frame around it (attached to the wall) or a brush-stroke border around the old color.

If the wall's going: when the section comes down, take that chunk and resize it around the collage once it's not fixed to the wall itself anymore.
posted by whatzit at 9:37 PM on May 24, 2008

I would speculate, as mentioned by true, that if the work of art spans two sheets of drywall it is going to be nearly impossible to remove it without breaking it. If it doesn't, cut it out and re-drywall, if it does let your daughter know you love her, but her work needs to be preserved in a digital form...
posted by HuronBob at 6:25 AM on May 25, 2008

thanks, everybody. i have a lot of things to explore to save it (and i will).
posted by mdienno at 8:53 AM on May 25, 2008

Would painting it with multiple layers of shellac, before cutting it out, preserve it?
posted by aeschenkarnos at 7:31 PM on May 25, 2008

Just a note that you can use a stud finder to determine if there are studs in the way of the collage prior to cutting into the wall.
posted by notashroom at 10:44 AM on May 27, 2008