Does anyone have any tips for painting over dark brown wall paneling?
Question:You know the kind from the 70s..it makes my room feel really dark and its depressing. I hate having company over because it is so ugly. My room is already super small. Should I remove the panel then paint? I want to do it myself. Thanks xoxoxoxo
Answers:
Ya know, we had the same dilemma a few years ago and my wife found a thick bodied wallpaper that was designed for covering paneling. The wall now looks like textured wallboard and we had our choice of paint colors. I think she picked it up at Walmart, but I bet any paint or good hardware store could help. It went up just like wallpaper and it's very durable. No, the grooves don't show through. Good Luck
probably the reason the paneling is there is because they couldn't fix the wall or the wall is all cracked. Wood is a warm and friendly product. Probably that wood started out in a light color and darkened with age. Ask someone at Home Depot if you could lighten the color with a stain. If not, then just have white furniture in your room and very few pieces. Add white draperies and make them extra wide to cover more of the wall to expand the look of the room.
buy a good primer, and then paint it any color you want.
Good luck. I painted my paneling and it sucked! First you have to primer it and it takes like 2 or 3 coats of primer and then you have to paint over the primer which takes like3 coats and the big pain in the *** comes when you have to do the little crevices in between the wide pieces individually. If my wall ever needs repainted, I will pay someone to do it for me.
who knows what's under the paneling... it could get expensive and time consuming.
Rent an electric sander (if you don't have one) and lightly sand off the panelling, no need to go deep, just "rough it up" a little, dust it off well, then apply a primer, then paint as you like.
You can paint directly over the panelling if you wish, but it may not adhere well, and may take several coats to cover.
You can use different tones between the grooves, for a 'striped wallpaper' effect, using blue painter's tape to keep you from going outside the lines.
Light neutral pastels look better than stark white, check out the HGTV site for tips.
Depends on your paneling, you may want to sand w/ sandpaper, useTSP solution to wipe down, prime with primer, then paint. Its easy, done it many times.
If you remove the paneling...be careful in case you don't like what you find and what to put it back up.
Wallpaper. There is a special covering you put on before the wallpaper. Then the wallpaper goes over it. Surprisingly, I have seen this done and it looked great. You could not see the spaces at all.
Paint...primer, then paint. If you buy/rent a sprayer it will make it go quicker than having to paint each space. The finish will also be smoother.
if you want to repaint your wall with a lighter color.
dont forget to apply emulsions. it looks like a glue of some sort. you just paint it over your dark wall let it dry for just a couple of hours then repaint with your desired color.
if you dont do this. your lighter paint will get some stains over your dark wall, thus, you will be applying multiple coats of new paint just to eliminate the stain, or worse, you wont get the stain out of it.
You can paint over paneling, but the lines still show, and it really didn't look good. If at all possible remove the paneling.
Ugh, I totally know how you feel! We are living in my grandmother's old house, and she just thought the world of the wood paneling! We ended up sheetrocking one room- don't recommend that unless you want to pay professionals to do it! Pain in the ***!! But if you are just looking to paint over the paneling, I've been there and done that too.
We used a very think heavy white primer, 1-2-3 stain blocking primer (named something like that!) We had to put at least 3 coats of it over the paneling. Have a paintbrush for the cracks and start there. Fill all the cracks in first and then use a roller to paint the rest of the primer all over the walls. Like I said, it will take several coats of it. Then you will need to follow the same procedure with the paint. It will also take probably at least 2 coats of paint.
It can be a pain in the rear, but the end result is way better than the dark paneling. There is also another method that is much more involved. It involves using wood filler and a spackle to fill in all the groves between the slats of wood. Letting it dry and sanding and repeating a time or two before painting with the primer and then regular paint. It is very time consuming though, and the results are not guaranteed to look like a solid flat wall.
I completely recommend painting over the paneling! It is a lot of work, but in-expensive and worth it in the end! Good luck!
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