Now that is yellow- whew! I would try to neutralize and brighten the place. I would paint all of the wall paneling a warm white, replace all the window treatments with something clean and modern (accordion shades or bamboo shades), and replace the light fixtures. Clean it up, simplify, and brighten. Good luck!

Thanks Jesst, I'm definitely replacing all the fixtures. If you were to paint the paneling white, what would you do to the walls - and it would have to tie in with the kitchen.

Will def look in to new window treatments in the den - hadn't even though about those yet.

Thanks!

I would keep the paint colors light so they're not a really stark contrast to the white. Light beige, warm gray, whatever you like.

I opened this thread last night but had to sleep on a response because I was really distressed to hear you would be painting all that wood. I'm really relieved to see on the Home Dec forum that you are open to keeping it. One example shown in response to your query there really shows how a coat of paint can take something unique with tons of character and depth and make it into something that looks like everyone else's house.

To me, the wood looks really special; maybe it's not panelling but solid tongue-in-groove? And what a relief to see something that isn't pine or oak for a change! The grain is gorgeous. I couldn't help wondering why you would be buying the house if you didn't like its best feature - kind of like buying a home with a view and then boarding up the window, I thought.

I can see two things wrong with how it presently looks: one is that no one who's previously owned it has ever been able to think of anything that goes with wood except more wood, and the other is that someone thought that yellow goes with wood. There is certainly a great deal of room for improvement, and much of it is likely to consist of painting some of the wood surfaces, but I sure hope you will consider exempting the wall panelling from that.

The built-ins next to the fireplace, and the back wall of the wall-hung shelf above the phone would be on my list of things to paint, and I might be open to painting the doors too. The kitchen cabinets are nice (and it actually looks like a great kitchen!) but it would hurt me less to paint them than to paint the walls. When we did our kitchen lo these many years ago (17 or so) we were even ambivalent about covering up the pine grain (very naive), so we did them with a thinned forest green paint that lets the grain show through. Nowadays of course you can get coloured stains (even a white one), so maybe that would be an option to consider.

The valances could be painted, but I wonder if removing them altogether would make it easier to freshen up the look of the place. That reddish colour, which is shared by a lot of the trim, is what I think drags the panelling down the most, and is also what the yellow clashes with the worst.

As for paint colours, I'm anything but an expert and I certainly can't predict your taste, but I am just painting a barnboard attic room with a light/mid-blue wall (Pratt and Lambert Icelandic) in a satin finish, white trim, and a neon green floor (but that might not work for you), and I will say that the first corner I finished just seemed to me to be screaming for wood furniture of just the shade of your panelling. If it suits your style, I would suggest you consider colours in the blues and greens that are fresh and bright, just not yellow/red/orange. A livelier floor would also help enormously. I guess I might be thinking what some people call "beach" themed, lots of breezy white linens and such.

Anyway, I would hope you'd consider living with it, painting everything except the panelling in colours that you like, and delay a decision until you've seen it in a setting that you create, rather than the one the PO created. But gosh, I hope they leave you that kitchen light fixture!

KarinL

Jesst, the colors are pretty light throughout the house. I thought about keeping it light in the kitchen, not that there's that much wall space in the atcual kitchen area, but in the eat in, there's a bit more - but this brick/rust color red keeps coming back in to play on the virtual painting site I went to - in the kitchen next to the cabinets, it looks good, not sure how it would go over in the eat in area though...

Karin, thanks so much for your post - glad you were able to sleep on your reply and not have it keep you up at night - that's what's happening to me. Too much to think about, really. I honestly don't know the difference between paneling or t&g. Someone told me it could be either maple or birch, personally I wouldn't know the difference, but I am trying to learn.

Why this house - many reasons, price, location, layout. As for the interior, I see a lot of potential, but prior to posting on this site, I saw the potential of painting it, at least the kitchen, not so much the den. The wood in the den is nice, don't get me wrong, I do like it, and as I've mentioned elsewhere, to me, it's warm and inviting (with the right kind of furniture, not the crap the people have in there now) and it reminds me of my Grandparents cottage in upstate NY where I'd spend summers as a kid (they had it for over 50yrs) What I don't like is that plate rail at the top, and I can't come up with any solutions on what to do with it - THAT bothers me a LOT. It's a dust collector in my eyes, not a plate rail or shelf. As you mentioned:

"I can see two things wrong with how it presently looks: one is that no one who's previously owned it has ever been able to think of anything that goes with wood"

That's what I'm afraid of with me, and which is why I'm here looking for ideas. I'm going to be only the 3rd owner, and as you can see from the pics, the current owners (CO) haven't done squat, nor do they have squat. I'm not really a blue or green person, I've always been scared of color and usually go with beiges, though I was convinced to venture in to golden yellows in my daughters room and loved it. Don't get me wrong, I love color, and admire many homes I've looked at with the colors they've used, it's just me, being afraid of what to pick and how it will look and the possibility of me hating it (and second guessing myself along the way) I hate making a mistake and wasting money. As I mentioned to Jesst, the virtual website I tried out with cabinets similar to the color in the kitchen, I liked this brick rusty red color on the walls - very unlike me, but would definitely think about putting that color in there. If I had to pick between a blue and green, it would be green, but otherwise, I'd be gearing more towards the golds, yellow, beiges, tans, etc. The house was painted not too long ago and I probably wouldn't change the colors in there, with the exception of the YELLOW that's screaming out.

I'm just very surprised I can't find more info on what I'm looking for out there. It seems people just aren't keeping (and showing) their paneled rooms - only their painted paneled rooms. I've looked on TOH website and others, nothing really to mention.

But not to worry, I won't be delving in to the den right away after closing, kitchen will be top priority. The only thing I know I'll be wanting to do in there is rip that chair rail out (when I find a suitable replacement idea) and somehow make that built in have a pullout for a laptop computer so we can use it as a desk.

Thanks again!!!!

Maybe try a few simple solutions first? If that doesn't work out, then look at bigger solutions like changing the color of some of the wood (paint it).

1) Remove the plate rail and cleverly patch the hole. Up that high, I wonder if anyone would even notice. Hopefully the exposed paneling has not changed color and the paneling is the same color under the plate rail.

2) Change paint colors where and how you can. A couple goals in constructing color palettes would be:

Focus on neutral colors - by neutral I mean keep the contrast of color low. Try to find warm paint colors that are like - and harmonize well with - the warm woods tones.

Regarding those *neutrals*, maybe stick to lighter paint colors. Having a level of contrast that is light/dark will keep it from looking like you tried to *match* the wood and therefore are trying to make it go away visually. A lighter wall color that doesn't contrast at the color level but DOES contrast at the light/dark value level could be a smooth, yet visually interesting transition from wood to wall.

If all the doors don't match, maybe look into replacing all the doors too. I would try to find doors that look very similar to the originals. Stained doors, white painted trim could work.

I would remove the curvy valance from that window, and remove the wall-mounted bookcase.

I'd paint the yellow to a neutral color, like "Swiss Coffee" and live with it for a while.

Funcolors, thanks for all the ideas. I'm just worried there may be a seam all the way across the walls, the paneling may have been pieced at the point where the rail is - will have to check for sure once we close next month. I wouldn't worry about some nail holes if that's the case, I can live with that. In the meantime, trying to look for ideas to replace the shelf with some other type of molding. There's a LOT of doors to replace if I go that route - that would be later down the road though - will have to come up with a solution to work with what I've got - I'm leaning on painting many of them around the house - none of the doors are painted in the house, except the front door which is white, so it's an issue I have to tackle throughout - they all stick out like a sore thumb!

Lazy, I like the swiss coffee color, not sure how it will look agains those cabinets. I can see the walls now, swtaches and swatches of paint colors...

THanks!!!

Wow...that is a lot of wood! I too have a lot of wood trim in my house, but you have me beat! ;)

I personally like the color yellow, however, it's one of those colors that requires a lot of deliberation in order to select the 'correct' color yellow for your room. It can have tints of green, orange, blue or be closer to the white spectrum. Your current shade of yellow is not the best shade choice and if it were my house, I'd re-paint in another shade.

I try to live with samples of the colors on the wall grouped in color spectrums for a few days/weeks until I've settled on the one I like the best.

Personally, I do not enjoy wood paneling, but I live in a very sunny part of the country where it's not the normal architectural feature. But, to each his/her own! I think before you decide anything, you live within the walls a bit. If the wood is the feature you enjoy the best, then keep it. If not, paint it in a neutral shade. Just realize, once it's painted, there's no going back...so, be sure of your decision.

Another option -- you could remove 'some' of the paneling in some rooms/areas and replace with drywall (if the walls are in bad shape underneath), Then, keep it in other areas to keep the cozy effect, but to eliminate the floor to celing wood paneling look.

I'd consider neutrals such as creams, linen whites -- not yellow-y ivory or bright, bright whites -- for the trim areas not attached to the paneling, ie: louver doors, trim around the doors, etc.

In the third and fourth pics, for example, I'd remove the paneling that flank the louver doors and the hallway entrance. There's SOOOO much paneling/wood features that it makes it look 'busy'.

This isn't a historical, Victorian classic with preservation worthy architectural features. I think it's a great house with huge potential and you should feel comfortable altering it to suit your own needs and taste.

Good luck with whatever you decide to do - it's so exciting buying a home and thinking about all the potential it has! :)

Another vote here to leave most of the woodwork natural.

You mentioned looking for sites that might offer some inspiration. One is Retro Renovation, a blog for lovers and restorers of 1940s, 1950s and 1960s homes. It's a fun place. The URL is:
http://retrorenovation.com/

Another site is LottaLiving, where if you register, you can post pictures and get lots of feedback from fans of midcentury architecture. On their home page, click on the link to the message boards and check out the threads under "Mid Century Modern Homes." Very inspiring!

Here is a link that might be useful: Lotta Living