Refinishing Original Pine Paneling 1954 Ranch

6 years ago

The first photo is from the listing for our home. (Original owner's things.) The second and third photos show what I've been working on for 2 years. We are trying to keep the original paneling and beams by refinishing. My question is whether this looks better? (We have the bubble lights tied high while we are working; they usually hang at the right height above the dinning table.) Refinihsing the paneling and beams is labor intensive and it would be good to hear whether it's having any benefit. Painting the whole space would be easier! But not necessarily best-right for my house.

The house is a 1954 mid-century ranch. It's all one open living space. The walls and ceiling are constructed of 3/4" tongue and groove pine paneling. The beams are oak. The ceiling was painted white long ago and we cannot strip or sand it down. We will repair and repaint. The walls in the living areas are mostly still wood, though they have darkened with age. Also there are deep water damaged spots from the previous owner'S wall-hung plants. Our goal is to sand the walls and beams to refresh and lighten the space and diminish visible wear and damage. We have cut back overgrown trees and shrubs but we have not yet removed several large tress that likely need to be taken down. Even after the trees are down, the public half of the house faces west and we have 4' eaves, we are in the northeast, and does not get tons of bright sunlight. The photos below show the other half of the house. First photo is the real estate listing and the second photo as it is now.

At some point in the distant future we would refinish the floors in a lighter finish. We have removed the colonial style crown molding that was added in the 1970s and we will replace it with plain flatstock trim that was used elsewhere in the house and at the floor transition.

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palimpsest

6 years ago

last modified: 6 years ago

My preference is the sort of middle tone it probably had originally. I am sure this oxidized darker over the years and had uneven spots where pictures were hanging and things. I think that if you keep it completely light it may look a little raw or Scandinavian. That's not wrong but it seems like you want to be fairly true to period.

I guess the same with the floors. The majority of mid-century floors in my neighborhood (which really encompasses 1964-70, because it was still a slum with distressed 19c. houses before then, and is now a mix of saved 19th c and 1960s)--the majority of the floors were originally very dark, like a Jacobean or fumed oak finish. However, in the 1950s there was a certain amount of "blonde" finish but the blond had a bit of grey in it as well, like Minwax Weathered Oak

However, this wouldn't have been used with knotty pine on the walls I don't think.

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Comments (6)

jmarino19
Original Author
6 years ago
When our offer was accepted, my previous post. That 1976 kitchen died completely after a few months. Most of the cabs are now my husband's work bench in the garage. When we opened the walls to redo the kitchen we discovered we had major rot in several sills and walls and other fun adventures in home ownership!
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Hi, The darker you're willing to go, the better will be the illusion that it's properly and fully stripped. A light/natural finish is probably going to look quite "pickled" with the embedded paint. After you strip the finish, if you wait until the wood has dried out and is again firm and hard, quite a lot can be done with scrapers to work the remaining pigments out of the pores. Can't be done while the wood still has liquid in it, either water or petrochemical. There are many sets of "contour" scrapers out there, and with a file and determination you can shape them to do a nice job for your molding profile needs. Sandpaper has the tendency to push the pigment into the wood, especially end grain. That's where scrapers really enable a full removal. Observe adequate lead-handling precautions. Casey
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Oh, I’m definitely not doing whitwashing then if it looks like the 90’s- we are trying to take that out of the house. Thank you! ( I would show pictures of our room, but we are finishing our floors in our living room, so everything is in here right now...) not much room for you to see. No our ceilings are popcorned, that’s next to go. We have a fireplace, and a large floor to ceiling window opposite of it. I’ve have found probably every picture out there with paneling, and a lot of them are beautiful. I think if it was a room were weren’t in everyday I could win this battle, but it’s our bedroom. That leaves us to painting then (he does live here too...haha...) I actually think paneling looks stunning when painted navy. I may even let the knots show through and not make it perfect with that color...hmmm?
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pamghatten
6 years ago
I think you've done a great job. I also hate that orange shellac wood, makes me cringe. Wood shouldn't be orange! LOL!
jmarino19 thanked pamghatten
hamamelis
6 years ago
last modified: 6 years ago
Agree with Palimpsest. Nicely finished pine in that original style is warm and lovely, and I wince a bit whenever I hear of it being automatically ripped out to fit tastes of this "light-interiors" era, instead of renewing the paneling.

Your not-too-detailed picture of the library is a very nice advertisement. Maybe put a nice glow on the finish to throw light around, thin and limb trees up high? It'd look cool and shady in warmer weather, wonderfully warm and inviting at night and in bad weather. I like it a lot.
jmarino19 thanked hamamelis
jmarino19
Original Author
6 years ago
Thanks, Pal. Yes, we are going for a light mid-tone for the walls. I am hand sanding this myself. I don't want to do any more work than necessary! The oak beams are a bit of a challenge bc those were stained very dark in the 1970s.

The woman who grew up in the house told us the floor was a light oak color before her parents redid them in a dark Jacobean stain in the 1970s. Seems like the dark stains hit here in the mid-1970s and before it was originally "natural" looking.

pamghattan, thank you! I work on it a little at a time. It seems like I have made little progress. But then I see the old photos and I realize how much fresher it feels. Well at least the dinning room feels better.

Hamamelis, renewing is definitely not the trend. But the warm glow is wonderful. The wood was so damaged and darkened with age the place lost the glow a bit. It felt dingy and not just dark. This side of the house wouldn't have worked white anyway. It needs cozy colors.

as we update and fix, if something is original and it works, or it can be made to work, we try to keep it. If stuff has been previously replaced or something is damaged beyond repair we do what we think is best to make the house modern and livable, in keeping with the spirit and idea of the house.

I appreciate your feedback. We realize the wood--even painstakingly refreshed --isn't for most folks.
Annette Holbrook(z7a)
6 years ago
We've recently bought a cabin with knotty pine walls and ceilings from top to bottom. My husband loves them as is so I've been looking into options. I like the idea of painting the trim and leaving the pine.
jmarino19 thanked Annette Holbrook(z7a)

Refinishing Original Pine Paneling 1954 Ranch

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Refinishing Original Pine Paneling 1954 Ranch

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