With your painting or artwork , to ensure you won't have any damage to the actual print or any color bleed or color fade, I would suggest you put a protective seal over the artwork first; dry thoroughly and then do your clear crackle size and finish. I use Color Seal. It has very low co-solvents that won't harm the art piece. good luck.

Thanks for the pics lafonda_ranch and michelle. Our entire LR was paneled also, looking at the before pictures,.. . .am wondering why I was even remotely interested in buying this house, deep down I must have known it had potential. Told DH this room was going to get painted, he decided to tear down the panelling, drywall, add mouldings, tear up the 'lovely' green sculptured rug, install hardwood. I do believe this large project almost did him in...for some reason he seems reluctant to start renovating our 70's bathroom lol. before after to be done (70's bathroom) (note the gold veined mirrors & hanging angel lamps...I've kinda gotten fond of them, great lighting for doing makeup.

bigdoglover - thank you for your very nice compliment. We're pleased with how it turned out. For about 3 years we planned a remodel with new cabinets and a minor layout change but the present housing market in our area just does not warrent such an investment. All the painting was DIY. Same products used on all cabinet surfaces, inside and out. We cleaned with Dirtex after sanding (get corners well) and using a tack cloth to remove the dust. BIN primer is a bonding primer. Recommend the original shelac (oil) based. It dries really fast. Sacrifice a good brush as cleaning one is nearly impossible. So long as surfaces are clean it attaches. One coat of primer. After priming, caulk any floating panels on the doors with a paintable caulk followed by 2 coats of paint. I'm sure other paints are entirely suited we just selected Cabinet Coat (brand) because it is durable. As to distressing, I can't offer any advise. The doors and drawers were painted laying flat after removing hardware. Cabinets remained in place. The only difficulty was in learning how to apply the paint as it skins rapidly so there is little time to rework runs. Learn to make long strokes going with the wood grain. Recommend doing insides first to learn. The raised panel look you are after possibly could be made through application of trim onto your existing cabinets. I've seen it done on home bars and the look is authentic. Good luck. We did our kitchen from appliance purchase to completion in 37 days though we had some really fast turn-time from the granite fabricator during a slow period for them.

Whenever I wonder if I can paint something, I remember my friend saying 'have you ever tried to remove paint that you've spilled or dripped? At one time, it seemed like if it moved, I painted it. Even have painted (stenciled, and splatter painted) a tablecloth to use as window covering..went thru wash just fine. Painted our river cabin plywood floor with a brick pattern and held up fine. Mom tells me her mom used to paint her kitchen linoleum every few years FYI, even hung wallpaper on that cabins paneling and never a problem with it due to the extreme changes of temps.