I don't think it's going to be as hard as you think. I would imagine the top layer is going to peel off relatively easily. Then work on one wall at a time..............score the backing paper ( you can use a paint scraper ), fully soak the wall all over ( using a big car sponge - and i mean soak it ), then go back to the beginning and re-soak an area of around 6-8 feet at a time. Scrape the paper in an upwards but slightly sideways direction, It should hopefully come off ok. Steamers are a waste of time! The old fashioned way, worked well enough for decades! Good luck x

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Hi Gerty, I would definitely recommend a neutral textured wallpaper if you didn't want to just paint the walls either side. Harlequin do some really nice ones that would work against the busy fireplace. Or you could use on another wall and paint either side of the fireplace, hard to say for sure without seeing the whole room. This has a slight plaster affect which slightly emulates the pattern in the fireplace... This one is a metallic texture which could look really nice... This shows how the textured wallpaper will look but I would stick to a neutral colour...

thank you so much for your advice! so the structure is pretty much unchanged so it's not a new wall that was erected in between rooms. Walls are original, solid but when a hole is drilled in them, they do have this crumbly stuff that comes out...am I making ANY sense?! 😂🙃 He's basing his opinion on the flats that he's renovated and that he also bought and renovated his own flat on the same road as mine. I don't know if he was putting me off extra work to help me save money OR he didn't want to take on more work. I've had a few carpenters flake on me so I'm not sure which of these two it is- will see if I do get a quote from him or not 🤷🏻‍♀️ yes for the bedroom, papering on top and painting below the beading. The wallpaper I want alone is likely to cost £1000 so I would die if I buy it and then can't use it...😬