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Keeping paneling; What color to paint trim?

10 years ago

In the mid 60s when I was a teenager, my dad converted a chicken house on our farm into stables, and had one end made into a large lounge area, about 25' x 12', complete with vertical wood paneling on the walls- the sheets, not tongue and groove. The ceiling is peaked, with a wooden beam at the highest point.

After I finished college and married, he extended and converted the lounge into a one bedroom apartment. The apartment was recently damaged by leaking pipes, so I am in charge of overseeing the repairs. The kitchen will be totally updated, but the dilemma is what to do with the original lounge area. It is the oldest part of the apartment, but insurance is not covering any updates to that area.

One wall has the paneling all the way to the peaked ceiling, while the opposite wall is sheet rock to the ceiling, and opens to the kitchen and bedroom. The two side walls are paneling, and one has a built in bench and two sets of built in shelving above, all stained wood. The built ins are scratched from years of tenant use, as is the window trim, baseboards, and door trim.

I was considering painting all the paneling, but am not sure that is worth doing in a rental apartment, and besides, I don't hate the look of it. So, if I keep the paneling in its original sate, what would be some options as to updating the trim? Would it look odd to paint the top of the built in bench and shelving and window and door trim an off white?

What color would work for the one sheet rock wall?

Thanks for your input!
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Comments (4)

madeyna
10 years ago
I painted one of my window seats and trim a kind of dull black and scuffed up areas to make it look worn. It looked good with the paneling in the room. At one point I was painting night stands for that room in a dark brown and almost redid the trim and window seat in that color because it looked so nice agains the paneling. Alot depends on what kind of trim you have in my last house I had really skinny wood trim on the paneling and it looked stupid painted. It just called attention to something that was never ment to be a focal point. In this home the trim was all at least two inchs wide with wide cove molding at the ceiling level. It looked great painted.
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eclecticcottage
10 years ago
Is it light or dark paneling? We had "pickled gray" in our bedroom here, but when we were taking it down so we could rerun some wiring (we were going to put it back up and paint it) we found mold behind it from water leakage. So we did the "plywood paneling" thing instead, and painted that white.

I think the lighter paneling could support beiges and lighter earthy tones where the darker would be more chocolates and deeper colors. Our neighbor's house has REALLY dark walnut like faux paneling, and I can't imagine many lighter colors would compliment it at all. Their place is pure 1970's so everything is oranges and browns with it now.

Personally though, if it was a rental I was looking to get tenants for, I'd paint the paneling to give the place a more updated and fresh feeling. Most people equate the sheet paneling to old and dated and worn, and it might effect the rent you can get, or maybe just the tenant base.
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Leave the fireplace. It fits in the room. Is that actually paneling, or did someone just frame in parts of the wall over the sheetrock? If that is what was done, I would consider removing all that trim on the walls, fill in the nail holes, sand it and prime it and paint the walls, all a solid color. All that trim and framing are way too busy. Once you get furniture in the room, it seems to me, it would look over busy and not very nice. Nice sized room. Nice fireplace and floors.
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I suspect the paneling above that appears to be on an angle, is a bulk head for something, and I would be very cautious, trying to remove it. It may hold plumbing pipes, or it may hold ac vent pipes, etc. I would paint the walls all to match, but, leave the wood on the slanted ceiling part. I would paint the bookcases white too (different sheen, but, same color white as the walls), but leave the mantle like it is.
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"The tricky part would be where the cut off may be on the small end of the arch wall." That is what we all are dealing with...the arch should have come down to the floor, giving a true separation from one room into the other. With the chair rail wrapped into the living room and abruptly cut off is just wrong. An arch isn't a column, and visually, should be grounded. This is the only thing I could come up with: Have bookcases built on living room side. That will "explain" the chair rail. So, new bookcases, painted your trim color and the tiny wall UNDER the arch gets painted trim color (same finish). Visually, you will see white to the baseboard. One more question: which room do walk into first from the front door?
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Annie Deighnaugh
10 years ago
It depends on the color, but there is a deep orangey red that works well with wood tones as does the blue....this inspiration was stenciled in a church I recently visited in Budapest.
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sjh53
Original Author
10 years ago
The paneling is definitely more dark tones than light. Madeyna, interesting idea to paint shelves and seat black or dark brown - the lines in the paneling are black, so that could work.

Eclecticcottage, I agree painting it would update and freshen the space. Unfortunately, my parents' place will probably be sold within the year, and I think it's likely the acres will be divided into estate lots, and the barn will probably be torn down. However, my son is moving in, and he has said that it would look better painted - something that amuses me since he has NEVER shown any interest in what his surroundings look like. Perhaps maturity is kicking in now that he has reached the 30s!

Annie, the blues and orange look lovely against that paneling - which is much nicer and a different color hue than what I am working with.
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