When we opened up our downstairs entryway, we framed in the existing doorway to create a small alcove. However, the back side of the new wall is no longer lined up with the rest of the family room wall because they did not frame the new wall to the same width as the load-bearing beam. The crew has been made aware of this, and will be re-framing the new wall so the drywall will be flush.

The problem is that the family room does not have drywall. It's a 1/8 inch wood panel painted a flat white. I don't know what kind of wood it is, but it's real wood, not a fiberboard or a veneer. When they re-frame the wall, the drywall will not be flush with the rest of the paneling.

Existing framing and family room wall. The part on the left is the new wall which will be re-framed, the rest is covered in the painted paneling.

"Before" pictures · More Info

Here you can see how the drywall and the paneling are not flush.

"Before" pictures · More Info

I don't want to tear down all the paneling and put drywall in the entire family room. We could ask them to just take off the paneling above the old doorway/new wall, and drywall the whole thing, but then it will still be uneven wherever the drywall meets the new paneling. The other option is to replace the paneling above the door to the spare room and just re-trim the door. The drywall would go up to the decorative bracket by the door, so the transition from drywall to paneling would be camouflaged by the bracket. This would involve removing and replacing the trim around the fake beam, which may not be possible. Just removing the fake beams is not an option, since they have recessed lights built in (don't laugh, the house came that way, we might fix it someday).

"Before" pictures · More Info

A third option might be just using 1/8 inch paneling instead of drywall, but I don't even know if that type of panelling is even made anymore, and if it is, where would we find it?