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Painting wood paneling

 Yes, it can be done.  Does it suck?  You bet.  Is it worth it?  Completely!  Sneak peek at a before and after.  Don't mind the hubby ;) 



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We bought a house of our dreams.  Sort of.  It was in the perfect location - walking distance to the lake.  The neighborhood is amazing.  It had more than enough bedrooms.  Had a fenced in backyard that we wanted for the dogs. It was awesome!  Ok, it also sucked.  It stunk.  The previous owners had animals they didn't clean up after.  It was updated, but they did a terrible job with the work.  It needed a lot of fixing, a TON of paint and a little TLC.  

Oh yeah...and it has wood paneling.  Ugh.....

Don't get me wrong, it's beautiful wood paneling.  If you are in a cabin in the woods.  We were in the woods, but also by the lake.  I wanted a cottage, not a cabin.  Make sense?  Plus, being in the trees, we don't get a lot of natural light in the house and the wood made everything feel dark and dreary.  So it was going to get painted.  I loved the texture of the paneling, but I wanted it in white.  



We stalled as long as we could on this project knowing it was going to be a long and tedious job.  A few months later, the time had come.  It needed to go.

Here are my tips. It took us 5 days.  5 looooooong days.  Granted it was a large room and we also had a front entrance/foyer to do, but it took a lot longer than painting a bedroom.  We used a brush to do in the grooves and then a roller for the panel.  We also had to trim around the ceiling and the floors so it really was a lot of putzy painting. 

First, wash up and dry your walls.  You can just use regular soapy water to clean them up.  You want to make sure anything that is on the walls now is gone so that the paint adheres good.  Putty in all those holes too.  We had a ton of holes from where the paneling was nailed in.

 Use a primer next.  I recommend this primer for wood paneling.  Trust me on this.  When you are painting real wood paneling that sap will come through.  The worst part is you won't notice it until you have painted and you wonder what all those weird brown spots are.  This is the only primer I have found that can cover the sap successfully. 



You will need at least double the amount of paint.  We put on 1 coat of primer and then 3 coats of paint to cover it completely.  Again, this will depend on your room, the type of paneling you have and the paint you choose, but plan for more than the usual amount of paint.

Ok, here it is!  Here's how ours turned out:




We are so happy with how it turned out.  It feels like I'm finally in my beachy cottage instead of my cabin in the woods.  It's so much brighter.  And I think it's happier!  My next project was to whitewash the fireplace.  It was so darky and dirty and looked even worse against the fresh and clean white walls.

do it yourself

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