You love it when your kids complete an art project—but not on your walls! If you just walked in to find a new pencil drawing in your living room, don’t panic. We’ll give you multiple ways to remove pencil from your painted or wallpapered walls without damaging them or taking any paint off. Read on for expert-backed tips on how to clean your walls fast.

Things You Should Know

  • For small pencil marks, use a rubber eraser, dough wallpaper cleaner, or white toothpaste.
  • To clean larger areas, try soap or baking soda and water. You can also scrub down your walls with a Magic Eraser to gently wipe away pencil marks.
  • For extremely large areas or for walls that are too delicate to wash, you can add a fresh coat of paint over the pencil marks.
2

Soap and water

  1. Mild dish soap and water can wipe away pencil marks in no time. Fill a bowl with warm water, then mix in a few drops of dish soap. Dip a clean cloth into your mixture, then gently wipe away any pencil or colored pencil marks. Follow up by wiping with clean water, then let your wall air dry.[2]
    • If you aren’t sure whether or not your wall is washable, try out your dish soap and water combination on a discreet corner of the wall first. If the paint or wallpaper seems fine and it doesn’t wipe off any color, then you’re good to go.
    • If the soap and water makes your wallpaper or paint flake off, stop using it right away, and try a different method.
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Baking soda

  1. Use baking soda to scrub your walls free of marks. If your walls are washable, mix about 1 US tbsp (15 mL) of water with 1/2 tbsp (14 g) of baking soda to make a paste. Gently rub the paste into the wall with a clean cloth, then wipe it off.[4]
    • Baking soda is mildly abrasive, so it does have the potential to damage wallpaper or non-washable paint.
    • If you aren’t sure whether or not your walls are washable, try using the baking soda in an inconspicuous spot on your wall. If the paint flakes off or you notice any color transfer onto your cloth, pick a different method.

About This Article

Susan Stocker
Co-authored by:
Green Cleaning Expert
This article was co-authored by Susan Stocker and by wikiHow staff writer, Hannah Madden. Susan Stocker runs and owns Susan’s Green Cleaning, the #1 Green Cleaning Company in Seattle. She is well known in the region for outstanding customer service protocols — winning the 2017 Better Business Torch Award for Ethics & Integrity —and her energetic support of green cleaning practices. This article has been viewed 18,564 times.
3 votes - 100%
Co-authors: 4
Updated: October 25, 2022
Views: 18,564
Categories: Stain Removal
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