Painting Wood Paneling

The prep work is the hardest part. The kind of paneling you have and what finish is on it will determine the prep you need to do.

Here is why I haven't painted our wood paneling: It is nice and flat, but it has a lot of varnish on it. It will need to be sanded first, which is a huge mess and would require me to buy or rent a sander. Then it would need to be primed and then painted. It would take a lot of time that I don't have, since I have an almost-3-yr. old and a 7-month old.

If I had the money, I would pay someone. It's either that, or wait until the kids are both in school.

I have painted wood paneling in several different houses for myself and for friends. This is what i have done: First use sandpaper to rough it up a bit and then wipe it down with a damp rag. Prime it all. Might take at least two coats. Then paint whatever color you want! It is time consuming, but definitely easy enough to do. We did this in our basement and it turned out great. Really lightened up the room and didn't make it look so out of date. Good luck!

Hi M.,

I have refinished lots of furniture and painted almost all of the rooms in the four houses that we've owned in the last 9 yrs. There is a product available at Lowe's called Bulls Eye 1.2.3. Primer for all surfaces by Zinsser. It's great because you don't have to sand prior to painting. This stuff sticks to any surface and is easy to clean up as it's water based. It doesn't have a horrible smell like the shellac based primers either. I just used it to prime a book shelf for my daughter and I loved this product.

I think you should go for it you'll be surprised how it will change the room and you'll have the satisfaction of knowing you saved money and YOU DID IT!

First you'll want to wipe down the wall to make sure you don't have any dust or cobwebs lurking in the corners.

Second, prime the walls. The above mentioned primer dries fast so you can paint over it in an hour or so.

Lastly, paint your walls in the desired color and your done.

One tip I would like to pass on to you is the following:

If you're not painting your base boards, you'll want to tape them off using the blue painters tape. Make sure you remove after you prime and after you paint BEFORE THE PAINT DRIES. You'll get a crisper line because if you're not so neat and get alot of paint on the painters tape and let it dry, you'll pull some of the paint off the wall.

Good luck and let us know how it turns out.

Hi M.,

We had wood paneling that we painted. We used some stuff from Kilz that worked as a sander so there was no mess but A LOT of fumes. The cost per gallon of that stuff alone, plus the amount of paint you would need to buy....plus the inconvenience and time are things to think about. If you have a good painter, I would get an estimate and weigh the cost/benefit ratio. If they would do it for $500 or less it may be worth it....depending on the room size of course! Our paneling came out great with that Kilz stuff...available at Lowes I believe.

Hiring a professional for this type of job is really worth it. My old house had it and we had it professionally painted after we tried to do it. It is a HUGE job, no matter how much you try to convince yourself that it's really only 1 room! When we tried to do it, it just kept going forever and that was just the primer. Also, if you have a 1975-1980s house in Plano (like ours), there is probably some small router detail woodwork and that is a huge pain to get crisp. Ultimately, we called someone in because it totally looked like we'd done it ourselves.

Our current house has paneling in the living room, dining room, breakfast, and formals. It's such a daunting task that we haven't even started discussing it. We may start with the living room and only do the inside of the picture frames...

I can say though, it makes tremendous difference in the feel of the room when it is light and bright instead of dark.

M.,
I just did this a few months ago - and it came out great. 1. I used a fine sandpaper (I like the sanding foam blocks) to go over the paneling (70's vintage) just to remove the gloss - follow the grain - usually up and down. 2. wipe the dust off after sanding is complete 3. I used two coats (I am a brush person not a roller person) of Behr's paint that has the primer in it (Home Depot). The change really brightened the room and since we had wood ceiling beams I left the trim in the wood - which also pulled in the built in bookcase. Good luck - if you want to be able to start and stop when you have time available - and not have a big clean up each time - take your brushes or rollers and seal them in a plastic bag and set in the garage - you can do this for several days as you work through the project on a time available basis. I would do a section at a time and it hardly seemed like work.

I am a Nana with custody of a beautiful 5 year old, a yoga teacher - and I found the painting therapeutic. Best of luck!

We did this about 13 years ago. It has lasted well. But if I had to do it over again, I would take down the paneling and texture the walls. You may have to put up some extra sheetrock. It'll be worth it. It also changes the entire look of the room and updates it.

Painted paneling is a big improvement over paneling, but it's still paneling.