Yes, you can paint over it. You just need to seal/prime it first. Here's a good example of painting over knotty pine: http://www.remodelaholic.com/2010/12/painting-over-knotty-pine-paneling-complete-master-bedroom-redo/

As for the light fixture, there are many available that will extend beyond your medicine cabinet. Something like the style linked below may work.......just check the depth you need.
If you can't find a light that works, another option is to replace the cabinet with a mirror and hang a decorative cabinet over the toilet to hold your odds & ends.

Below is one example of a light that may work.

Here is a link that might be useful: Light fixture

Thank you annz! Seeing the photos really helps, and I love that particular light fixture.

It would be probably way more work than painting, but I am in the process of putting up pine boards in my kitchen stained with Minwax waterbased stain. They come in tons of beautiful colors. If you stained the wood a color you would get the lovely wood knots and charachter coming through but still get the feel of the wood.

I added a link below to Houzz. The first image is the same color I am staining my kitchen walls (I think, not sure I did the link right, it should be a light green/blue color).

Here is a link that might be useful: colored stained walls

That looks really neat, Kali. I wonder if the walls in that photo are whitewashed? I hadn't thought of this. If I could lighten the walls but keep the warm knotty look, I'd be all for that. I hope you'll post your end results.

Are you sure that is pine, looks like cedar to me but tough to tell from the photo?

Snail Lover, it is a white based "pickled" sort of stain, not white washed as a separate step, it is all in one but the same sort of look. They have two lines within their water based line, one is clear based, the other white based. All the white based come out that sort of white washed, pickled look. I am doing my two walls in my kitchen that color which in person looks like an old celery green, and my cabinets in the parchment which is sort of a white washed look with a yellow tint.

It will be a while before we get the kitchen done as it is all DIY. I should have a wall done and up this weekend (I hope if I can finish the drywall problem spot on the ceiling today so I can paint). I will post a pic of that wall, it will have no cabinets, but you will get the idea. It is a TON of work and that is starting with bare wood and not having to take off a finish already on. I have been sanding, staining, and polyurethaneing all week and still have more to go, but I am veryy happy with what I see so far. I really love the wood showing through, but still having the color, it really brightens everything up.

I can tell you if you are interested in it, it is very very hard to find. I had to call Minwax and litterally track down where they have shipped quarts of the white based to my state over the last couple of months. Home Depot carries it, but not in all their stores. I finially found a HD store that does carry it about 4 HD store away from the one I usually shop at. Oh well, it just means no one else will have my kitchen, worth the drive and the search if you ask me.

Can't wait to see pics, Kali.

Millworkman, I never even considered cedar, but you could be right. It does have a reddish color to it. I assumed it was pine because the kitchen floor and bedroom doors are pine. Maybe I jumped to the wrong conclusion. Is cedar soft like pine? I can scratch it with my fingernail.

This post was edited by SnailLover on Wed, Jul 31, 13 at 22:52

We have the same walls. We did did our Reno and kept the original. The water on the baseboards, where is it coming from?

Here is a link that might be useful:

Very nice. I really like your vanity. I think it's mildew that I'm seeing, especially near the toilet area. The walls were never sealed with anything. I'm still mulling over my options. I have reservations about painting over the wood... wondering if better lighting would be enough.

We had a wet mildew area around the toilet and found that we needed to remove the subfloor. Is the wood throughout? We have a log home and your interior seems similar, ours is white cedar.
You mentioned budget friendly, I think it's important to make sure the mildew is just humidity and not leak as it may be necessary to repair rather than paint. Better lighting makes a big difference as does some accessories. It's hard to get a feel for your home with just this sparse picture. This is such a blank canvass a bold shower curtain, maybe paint the vanity wood add a collection of small mirrors above the toilet or a reclaimed item for interest. We did as Annz suggested and it's a framed mirror over our vanity ($15 at a big box close out that I gave an antiqued leathery bronze finish and we bought a large mirrored medicine cabinet that I mounted over the toilet (pottery barn outlet $150). Good Luck with your project!

Never sealed?? Oh, I wish ours hadn't been, Dh had to sand each piece down so we could whitewash.

Here is part of our living room with the paneling starting to go up, this was knotty pine that had darkened and just made the room too dark

We used minwax pickling stain.

SnailLover -- I am no expert. Just a DIYer. Wood is porous. If that Cedar wasn't sealed initially and you suspect mildew ... you need to take some action. Especially around a toilet that will 'sweat' due to the cold water in the pipes and tank interfacing with warmer air in the room.

I hope an expert weighs in on this. What I would do is shut off the water to that toilet, flush it, put some fans in there and dry it out for as long as you can. Then ... I would use a Primer that seals moisture and paint it. A stain might not seal enough.

Anyway ... don't be afraid to paint the Cedar it can be done.

Really appreciate the advice on this. I'm going in a new direction now. I had a plumber here yesterday to fix the toilet and I mentioned replacing the vanity at some point. He took a look and said that the wood wall around it would need to be removed first because it was cut to fit around the sink.

I think these walls were a poorly executed DIY project. I'm now thinking I should just tear it all out and see what shape the drywall is behind it, then take it from there. What would you do?

So, the cedar planks were put in around the vanity. Mmmm, makes you wonder why the walls were covered in the first place.

That is probably a 'warning' that what is behind there ain't good ... I would still remove all the planking. A claw hammer and some gloves will do it. There will probably be glue behind them too in big splotches.

I had a similar cedar room in my old house that was a hot tub room (arch opening covered with a storm door with sidelights -- no kidding). After I removed the cedar -- the walls were stucco'd but with nicks, glue, dents, nail holes from the cedar, blah blah. I skim coated the walls with joint compound and smoothed it out with a damp brush as I went (swirling motions). Then a faux finished the wall. Looked great (see photo).

Bottom line ... after you get your cedar off you can survive even the toughest underlayment. It will open up many possibilities.

Here is my X-cedar-room, that had crappy walls.

I agree they are probably covering up something. That paneling isn't cheap, so it was either done because someone really liked the look or someone really didn't want to deal with what's behind it. In our old house, it was both. We really liked the paneling, but we also didn't want to deal with 3 layers of drywall (the last one being covered in wallpaper that was then painted) with blown in behind them. We used pine planks at the Cottage to cover popcorn ceilings rather than take them down.

It's not hard to take down, but be prepared to redrywall the entire room, because the potential exists that you will need to.

Hi there!

We just moved into our first home and decided to gut our bathroom, so it is now at the studs.

I would really love to put up v-groove or beadboard panels on the walls (tile in the shower walls), anad we did get a 110CFM fan.

If I prime the panels with a mildew-resistant primer, is this enough for an environment exposed to lots of moisture? I love my hot showers :)

Thanks!

Rhea