Hey, thanks alot. I just was looking at it and thinking, it would be really pretty glazed/whitened...still letting the wood grain show through. Your tips are very helpful! Thanks!

Seems a shame to cover up that walnut. Have you played with various lighting thruout the room? Just covering all the options! :)

I should have added: I use enough water to get a consistancy like half and half. A bit thicker than milk, but thinner than cream. This allows you to control the paint layer by brushing it out quite thin, or leaving it a little heavier in areas where you want more coverage. Of course, you always work in the direction of the grain...

Here is a thought to maybe make the future owners happy. Have a nice finish of something clear (varnish/poly) on there before you apply paint. The PO of our house painted over a lot of the woodwork. I can't begrudge them their style, but I am ever so thankful that there is a layer of varnish between the paint and wood. It has made the stripping much less painless. One round with heat stripper and one of chemical remover and I am done. No paint stuck in the wood grain.

THANKS for all the messages, people. I am not sure I was very clear on what I'm thinking of white-washing/glazing; this is NOT thick, real, wood paneling as in a nice Victorian or early century home. This is ala 1970s paneling, with the different width of ridge lines, like wide, small, wide, wide, medium, small, wide, etc, etc...
so we are talking PANELING. HOWEVER: It is dark, has a nice grain to it, and I think it may be some type of walnut VENEER, not solid walnut. Having redone a Victorian 1898 home, I'm all about restoring and not covering up TRULY HIGH, HIGH QUALITY VINTAGE WOODS...but the 1970s house has 1970s paneling. It's just flat dark as a cave.

Ewww! Paint away. It was your description of the nice dark walnut that threw me off. I have a friend that thad that 70's stuff (in all of it's wide irregular widths) in her house, we decided that it couldn't get any worse, and she painted it white below, put in a chair rail, and lined the top with I think wallpaper liner (I would have to check to make sure). Either way, the last time I walked in there, it was quite nice. The irregular specing did not jump out at you and just kind of gave it a country cottage look. If you like Victorian, you could do something similar and put in a rail about 2 ft from the ceiling line and a nice wallpaper above. Saw that once and liked it also. Post some pictures when done!

Thanks for clarifying...........yes, paint away! Don't worry about the grooves and don't waste time trying to fill them, but I would fill any poorly done seams and nail holes before painting.

Hi again, and thanks! Yes, one of our 'maybes' is to do a sort of Edwardian type thing and do the chair rail about 30-32 inches down from the ceiling, which we've done in four other rooms in the house, one my office, one the grandbabys' nursery upstairs, one our breakfast room, and one another upstairs guest room, with the contrasting paint below/paper above. In the nursery, my husband did a treatment with 1 x 4's and inner moldings under the chair-rail that went up about 5.5 feet, that so mimics the look of Victorian/Edwardian nice paneled wainscoting (complete with tall baseboards) that you have to look CLOSELY to see the inner panels are sanded down drywall under the paint. (You gotta love HGTV). Plus we did paint that whole lower wall with a paint you'd use over wood, a nice semi-gloss.

Back to this 1970s paneled room....so currently, I'm leaning towards taking the 'recipe' that someone gave me earlier in this post for the glaze/paint/water, test the matching bathroom paneling till I get the color that works, then do the lower 2/3 of the walls in the big room, and then on the top -- either texturize and paint or do wallpaper liner plus a nice 'Edwardian' looking wallpaper. Whatever we do, I will post a pic when done!

You all are a great source of ideas and help - thank you! Keep those ideas coming! We aren't going to start this till we complete our master bed/bath, so we're a month or so off!

Our house is the same vintage and the whole lower level had similar paneling. We cleaned it carefully and painted it, after going through the same thought process you are doing now. I figured we could always pull it off if we hated it. However, I love it. The grooves in the paneling make an interesting surface~ I actually like it better than plain drywall. It has made a huge difference in the rooms. Look up Carl Larsson's house and google images for painted paneling on the web, and you can get some interesting ideas for colors and how painted paneling might look.

Why not leave the paneling in place and use the 1x4, base, and chair rail treatment on the bottom third. Stain the new wood walnut and clear coat. Cover the upper two thirds of the paneling with 1/4" drywall. Relieve the back of the chair rail so that the drywall edge fits behind it and it will look like old fashioned paneling has been applied too the wall.

I really appreciate everyone's input! We are still working on the master bed/bath remodel, and this room is NEXT, so I haven't done anything yet. This forum has really given me SUCH useful, helpful information. Thank you all, and do keep it coming if you have MORE!

Would love to see photos of what you decided to do.

Buy a sample size of a solid stain you like and try it out. You will most likely be able to see wood texture but not the wood grain. Now if you aren't using a solid stain then you would have to sand off the existing finish before you put the new finish color on, similar to wood floor refinishing, which would be a LOT of work.

Also, zombie thread :P

no sanding necessary if you use a solid stain?