I and a friend had the same issue in our houses. In my house, it was real wood, and it was uber-glued to the plaster wall. The destruction removing it would have caused was way more than I wanted to wreak on my room and budget. So I actually just worked around it and left it as is. Once I had the rest of the room decorated properly, it just receded into the background. That is one approach.

You can also paint it, but bear in mind that if it is really grainy, the grain will show through so keep that in mind with your design. You could also whitewash or brownwash it just to change the hue of it slightly.

Another option is to sand and fill in all the grooves and knots with wood filler. My friend did that in his kitchen, then painted it. It had the look of just being a flat painted wall, very nice. I think there would be different issues as far as paint and filler adhering to fake wood that was a plasticized product.

If it is fake wood . . . I dunno. In my husband's old house, his daughter in law who moved into his old room just painted it all one color and it looks good. Not great but good and since she painted it a light color, it totally changed the somber mood of the room to something pleasant and cheery. Plus with lots of furniture in the room the wall recedes. With "fake" wood depending on how it is done, the wall could look like flat beadboard because the wood pattern was only printed on it. Depends on the product. Post photos!

What room has the paneling? Your level of finesse in the solution might depend on how prominent the walls are to the function of the room. I'd have more tolerance to a casual painted effect in a bedroom or family room than I would in a living room or kitchen or dining room.

As far as wallpapering, I can't help you there as I don't have any experience with it, but if you don't mind a split wall, I have seen some lovely velour patterned/textured papers in a solid color that are nice.

There is a dark, rough-cut wood "ledge" or chair-rail type of thing above the lower wood paneling, so I want to have two different but coordinating colors on the upper and lower. The room is going to be a "She Room".... it's not being used for anything right now, it's just a place we put things we don't know what else to do with. I guess it was meant to be another living room/family room but since there's only two of us now, we are never in there. I am going to use it for my treadmill, yoga, exercise, meditation, video games, reading, some TV, etc. Going to fill it with my plants and one or two of my fish tanks. It's going to be my "place of zen". :) I'm about to retire in 2 weeks and this room will be my first project.

Sue

OK, I'll go knock on some wood when I get home. :) I am starting to strongly lean towards textured wallpaper or maybe even some stick-on textured panels, but won't know till I actually see and touch some in person. Things look very different online than they do in real life. If I paint it, I was going to NOT fill in the ridges - I don't have the time and patience to do a good job with things like that, and was HOPING that just painting the ridges would make it look like wainscoting or something, but you're right, it will probably look like painted 70's paneling.

Thanks for the thoughts.

Sue

Sue if you take a picture and show us, we may be able to tell. I easily removed a house full of it, by myself as all of it was just tacked on, and basically held in place by the baseboard and top molding.

However, I do realize that we were very lucky. Fingers crossed for you too.

Will get a photo tomorrow.... thank you!

pull the paneling off, should not be hard since it is not the entire wall.

Hi Guys.

Still not sure what I'm going to do with the paneling... I've got time to play with ideas because before I even get to that I need to paint the ceiling, then the top half of the room, and the paneling will be my last part of the project. This is my first "retirement project" and I'm still officially working through the end of February but I've started gutting all the clutter out of there in preparation.

I had a dream last night (I guess this paneling is always on my mind) and it showed my room with white lattice tacked over the wood paneling! And when I woke up I thought "Huh - is that such a terrible idea?!?!?" Would it look really tacky and stupid? It sure would be a LOT easier (and in case you haven't noticed, I'm going for easy) and it might give the room the airy, outdoorsy, nature-inspired look I'm hoping for.

It does look like the paneling was nailed on, not glued, but I have no idea what the condition of the sheetrock is under the paneling so I'm not willing to risk it. So it's either paint over it, wallpaper over it, or tack something else over the paneling to disguise it. Would it look really trashy and stupid to leave it there and put some sort of "something" over it?

Sue

Don't add to your misery. If you want the garden lattice look, I'd go for wallpaper below with that pattern on it, maybe something vinyl. I'd be interested in hearing from anyone who had ever wallpapered over paneling. From what I see by googling it, you will still have to fill in the grooves. Adhesion will be an issue but hopefully you can get some good advice on a type of wallpaper and glue that will be good for that application. IF the paneling is real wood, if you don't mind a rustic look, you could paint it white. The fact that the grain will show through is no a negative if you're channeling a fence. If you're going for a garden look you probably can find a nice floral wallpaper for above OR a border. I'd go with a border, easier to change out if you tire of it.

So now that I'm wide awake (thank you, coffee!) I'm thinking that's a lousy idea. It would probably look like what it is... a lazy short-cut. I should paint the paneling, and THEN if I want to add some accent pieces of trellis for climbing plants, or to hide any areas of painted paneling that came out lousy, then I could add it.

Sue

Thanks, Pink..... for the reply and the effort of researching this. Yes, I'm going with paint over paneling. Final answer. :)

You're right, Cheryl, I apologize: let's hope these upload properly. Sorry for all the clutter and mess - we moved some clutter out and some into the middle of the room yesterday so we could start spackling the walls.

If it's that 60's and 70's sheet paneling with shallow ridges and not wood boards with knots and a rougher texture, I would simply paint it. I don't think you need to sand it, but just use a primer. Many years ago, I noticed in my landlady's home that her living room had painted paneling in it. It was a beautiful little cape cod and the painted paneling really added a nice extra dimension to the room. It was barely noticeable, but once I did notice it, I decided I loved the look and thought it was brilliant at the time, to have painted it. (the ridges were not filled, but were barely noticeable). If it's real wood boards applied as paneling, then I'd probably remove or cover it, if I didn't want to do the work it would take to make it look good painted (sanding and filling knots, etc.).

Yup, it's the old cheap stuff, pretty smooth and shiny, and I'm not going to fill the ridges - I think they will look nice showing through a little, as in your photos. But What can I do with this area that was scratched/damaged?

Without question, I would paint that paneling. You need to put an oil based primer over the wood first, and then the second coat would be a latex paint. It would transform it easily. Kiltz makes an oil based primer especially for this type of application.

The ceiling is the first thing I'm going to paint, and there are water stains so I will be using Kilz. Can I use the same Kilz as primer on the paneling or are there different types of Kilz for different applications?

Oh girl it's half of a wall! Clearly the sheetrock is okay otherwise the top half that's showing would be in bad shape to.

Get cracking and rip that sucker off! You don't want to do half a job here, and you'll be more pleased with it gone. For one thing, it's a cleaner look, for another, the room will appear bigger (the panelling cuts it off and makes the ceiling appear lower) and the most important thing is that you're going to be doing the job properly and not simply doing a cover-up. You got this....

ETA, while you're at it get rid of the rail. It's doing absolutely nothing for the room. We had similar...

OK, NOW you're getting into stuff that's WAY over my head! LOL I wanted quick and easy facelift, not major renovation! MAYBE if I were doing this WITH my husband we would go for removing the paneling, repairing the wall below it, removing the railing, etc. but this is something I want to get done in his absence when he's visiting family for a week. If we were to remove the railing, there would be major wall repairs to be done, AND, I'm not so confident that the bottom half is in as good shape as the top half.... previous owners let their dog do a LOT of damage in the house and for all I know there is scratched and chewed sheetrock under there, or worse!

And, hey... nothing says that I won't go back in a year and decide I DO want to go further with this and THEN I can take on removing the paneling. This will be my FIRST project..... if I find I enjoy it, then maybe I'll want to take it to the next level. Baby steps. :)

Sue

Use shellac to go over water stains in the ceiling, and once its dry, then primer and paint. Assuming, you have already had the leak repaired?

Yes, leak has been fixed. So I need to shellac before Kilz?

I'm no expert DIY'r but unless that scratched spot is really rough, I'd just paint over it and maybe do an extra coat of Kilz first. If it's rough, I'd use a very fine sandpaper and gently sand it as smooth as possible, then an extra coat of kilz right there. I think you're going to love your updated room!

Yes, shellac keeps the stain from coming through.

Found this because we are renovating a house with similar half wall paneling in our dining room. I’ve decided to push the formality of this space and paint the paneling matte blue-black from Farrow and Ball and the top part w/ floral Hygge and West wallpaper. Then planning to hang a mid century old family chandelier. Inspired by these posts on Instagram. Just another way of approaching this kinda space.

When I painted my 70's paneling (loved the look btw) I used liquid sandpaper. Wipe on, wipe off, roughs up the surface so it takes paint better and cleans . Painted with kilz primer then regular wall latex. Surfaces still going strong 7 years now.