Best way to cover up wood paneling?
Question:We recently bought an old farm house and the paneling is wood. I've read that you can wallpaper over it or put some kind of stuff between the cracks and paint over it, but I'm not sure what would get the best result. I just want normal walls without spending a bunch of money!
Answers:
paint will be the easiest and cheapest way to go. you don't have to fill in the cracks unless you just would like smooth service. in a farm house and keeping with the character of your house, i would not fill in the cracks, i would put a primer on first, you may need two coats. this will ashore the color of the wood doesn't bleed threw and then paint the walls the color of your choice and then sit back and enjoy your hard work.
I watched on a decorating show they put putty in the cracks then sand smooth it will be alot of work but after you paint it will be beautiful...whats behind the paneling? Could it possibily be removed? GL
use vinyl wallpaper
There are a few different approaches you could take that I know of depending on your budget, however, all ideas that I know are fairly inexpensive but some are less expensive than others.
First of all you could easily paint over the paneling, which is inexpensive and it looks nice when you are finished. However the paint can peel...here are some tips to help do it correctly.
Ofcourse wash the walls well and allow to dry. Use primer over the walls, however, I recommend you slightly sand the walls down to ensure the primer sticks to the surface. As far as the cracks I would suggest using adhesive drywall tape, mesh like, in the cracks before the primer. Drywall mud and other things don't seem to fill the cracks as well.
With that in mind, you can then either paint the walls whatever color you like or you can try putting drywall over the walls just like you would use paint. (I've heard this works very well but is time consuming) Roll on the drywall mud just like you would paint but as you roll over each line use less and less pressure and the mud will 'even out' and give a nice texture that will look like real drywall. Then when throughly dry you can paint it if you like.
I think painted over paneling looks quite nice myself, even when the cracks are not covered with anything but paint...but this is just my opinion. I just thought you might want a different idea that is cheaper than putting up drywall but looks just as nice. Whatever you do, I'm sure it will looks nice when finished! Good luck!
putting joint cement in all the cracks would take a very long time,considering it would take at least 2 or 3 different coats of it...what I have used is a paper called "liner paper"which you can by at some place like lowes or home depot...just hang it over paneling like wallpaper than you can hang wallpaper or paint over it....my 2 cents....
Yes.. You can fill the cracks in the panels with drywall compound, the sand it all down and prime and paint. Personally, I would remove the panels. if you have drywall underneath just make sure it is in good condition, if no drywall then install some or hire someone to do it..
don't - take it off and if the walls get ripped up, you can either re-drywall or do a textured wall and paint. Paneling is god-awful and looks even worse when it's painted over.
prime it with a paint product called "bin" first,then paint as usual,it is not necessary to fill the cracks!
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