Ever painted over wood panneling??

[Piecey]

DH and I bought a house a few weeks ago.

The room we were going to use for our nursery has three walls of wood panneling.
It is horrible and ugly and it needs to go away..

Underneathe the panneling is plaster and we're running short on time. We're college students (classes start for the Spring in a week) and we both work, on top of moving and house repairs which we're mostly doing ourselves.

So I've found a few articles that mention you can sand the wood panneling down to get rid of the gloss, joint compound, priming, etc.. but I don't know how well I believe it and I don't want to waste timing doing that if it's not going to work.

So anyone have any personal experiences on painting over wood panneling??

 

[Cindyluwho]

We have done it in several houses. If you're short on $$ or don't have the time to put up new drywall it's definately the way to go. If you paint it a nice light color it will have the feel of a "beach cottage". Not so bad!

 

[freckles and boo]

I would double check that the is no moisture or mold between the plaster and the paneling - especially if you are using it for a nursery.

 

[golfgal]

Since you are short on time, skip filling the lines and use a product called Liquid Sand. It will make the paint adhere to the paneling. You just roll it on like you do paint. It is super easy and works great. Filling in the groves in the paneling is a LOT of work and looks horrible if you don't do a good job. Just painting the paneling will be enough.

 

[Disney Doll]

You just have to get the "sheen" off the panelling or the paint won't stick.

You could sand it like crazy, but I'd go to a home improvement store and ask them if they have any kind of primer that will allow you to paint over panelling. I bet they do.

My late in-laws had that done to their house years ago and it looked nice when it was finished...kind of like wainscoting.

 

[comicguy]

If you want to paint paneling, you need a good primer(we use Gripper primer) it is about 25/gallon but it works well. (obviously it does not take the "line" out of the panel but with the primer and paint it really makes a differece in a room(we did this in our living room 2 years ago until we could afford to redo it properly this past summer)

Also the gripper primer drys in about 3 hours. so you can put a coat of paint on the same day.

 

[mom2boys]

We painted over the paneling in our living room. We put it off for so long because we were planning to remove it and put up drywall and then paint that. Well I go tired of waiting for DH to get around to such a huge job & just painted. My theory was, it couldn't hurt. Well it turned out beautifully. I used two coats of Kliz (primer) and two coats of paint. The only "prep" I did wash the paneling. It really turned out well. I don't know why we wiated so long.
The first coat of Kilz/primer really soaked into the paneling.

 

[teacups]

I agree with pp that it looks very beach cottage... and I love that. My basement is that right now. My parents did it once where they took all this time to fill the cracks, and IMHO it was a huge waste of time. Mine looks 10X better and I just primed it (Kilz) and painted (HD Behr) it. Never even sanded it... but if it is highly gossy (yuck!) then you should lightly sand. The sand product that a pp mentions sounds interesting. Good luck!

 

[DarthKTrava]

We washed ours, filled in the grooves with joint compound, primed them (they were DARK BROWN-UGH!) and then painted them. It took a couple of coats (kitchen and dining room were done in a shade of yellow that reminds one of melted butter ) and the living room done in a shade of blue.

 

[PrincessKitty1]

Yes!! When we moved into our house, most of the walls and ceilings were dark cedar paneling. We liked the cabin-feeling at first, but our tastes changed and besides, it was just too darn DARK.

We had it painted ivory and it's absolutely beautiful. We had it professionally done because it was a huge, huge job and needed oil or lacquer-based products that I find difficult to work with.

Our paneling did not have a glossy finish so it did not need to be sanded. We wanted the wood grain and the wood-paneling-look to show through so we didn't use any joint compound.

Cedar bleeds like crazy (I had already tried doing a small area myself with latex-based products, and the wood bled right through the primer). So our painters used a shellac-based primer (I believe they used Zinnser) and 1-2 coats of high-quality ivory wall paint.

 

[Piecey]

Thanks for all the ideas!

I think I might use the other bedroom as the nursery and just leave that room alone for now. Guests can live with wood panneling..

 

[mom2boys]

We did not fill the grooves. A client who happens to be an interior decorator was really impressed. She had never personally seen painted paneling. She literally could not stop touching it.

 

[KyraS]

Does anyone have pictures? Our den is two stories and panneling and I hate it. I would love to paint it but as I said it's two stories, stairs, railing and the overlook upstairs so I think it would be way to much work for just us.

 

[DarthKTrava]

I got the idea from relatives who'd painted their paneling when they decided to redo their kitchen.

 

[Liberty Belle]

My parents painted their paneling in their basement. They painted it an off white and it looked really nice. Much, much nicer than that ugly brown. Like a PP said, it gave it a beachy cottage feel. I think it would be really pretty for a nursery.

 

[plutolovr]

Another option is to cover the paneling with a paintable textured wallpaper, that's made specifically for this. Just cover the walls and paint.

 

[DarthKTrava]

My parents painted their paneling in their basement. They painted it an off white and it looked really nice. Much, much nicer than that ugly brown. Like a PP said, it gave it a beachy cottage feel. I think it would be really pretty for a nursery.

I have no idea who came up with dark brown paneling but they should be put in front of a firing squad!

You burn 2-100w bulbs and it's STILL dark!!!

 

[loco4dis]

We've painted over paneling in our family room, and in our basement. We used 2 coats of Kilz right over the paneling (no sanding) and 2 coats of paint. At first, we put it off (in the family room) thinking we would remove the paneling and have it drywalled. Well, one year went into another and another, so we just went for it with the paint job. It turned out BEAUTIFUL. The room has a chair rail and we did 2 different colors, one above and one below the chair rail. One of the painters we hired to do it couldn't believe how nice it looked. He said, "We have paneling in a room at home and I am going home to paint it after seeing this."

The guy I hired to do the basement was very hesitant about painting over all that paneling. He didn't think it would adhere, blah, blah, blah. Well, again I used 2 colors (2 walls in one color, 2 walls in a coordinating color). Again, it turned out amazing, lightened up that dingy basement, and friends who go down to see it can't wait to go home and paint THEIR wood-paneled basements! The guy who did the work even asked if he could bring potential clients by to show it to them.

I highly recommend it as a cheap way to do away with that awful brown paneling.

 

[iggbees]

my parents did it in the basement of their old house and it looked much better than the super dark wood that it was. they sanded the wood down first and then applied a primer and then the paint (which was a light green color). it looked soooo much better. way less 70's den like.

 

[Avalon_toon]

The first house I bought had paneling in every room - kitchen, bedrooms, livingroom... yikes! I replaced it in the kitchen/bathroom with drywall, but filled in the grooves in the paneling in all the other rooms, and then covered them with wallpaper - looked great, you'd never have known it was paneling after that.