Well, you can feast your eyes on my attic; I'm thinking you might be facing something similar. I stared at these boards, which were/are painted dirty white, for nearly 20 years before I figured out what to do. Or rather, how to decide what to do. I have two rooms upstairs. One is done in narrow boards with tons of end-to-end joints hanging in the middle of nowhere, and it's bumpy and uneven and ugly as sin. There was nothing for it but to cover it up, which I've done with panelling on one wall, and in another part of the room with wallpaper. I've also started panelling the ceiling with 1/8" maple plywood but don't have a photo of that yet. My husband is not a fan of the wallpapered part, but it works for me. I plastered (oh yes I did) all the cracks, smoothed the wall as much as I could, and papered over it. Half the room so far. For the rest, I've discovered an underpaper that may spare me the plastering. First two photos here of the original look and the panelling. Pardon the mess; after 20 years there are no empty rooms, and the house is so messy I have trouble getting presentable photos! The other room, shown in the third photo, had wider boards, not so many joints, and was installed better, flatter. That, I decided I could paint. It is shown here partly done (and with only one coat on one wall); again, pardon the stuff. Yes, this is how I work my way around the room. I am nearly done the room now, and really liking it painted, much better than I expected. I REALLY hated it when it was white with the dark floor. Am also doing a hallway, in a creamsicle orange colour, and that is looking pretty good too. So one question is, is the installation of your boards nice enough to paint? I have to admit I don't recommend the papering (sounds like that's been tried!). I used a satin finish paint; the old paint was flat, and yuck. If the boards are just bad, then consider removal or covering with panelling. Or with gyproc. An unexpected pain in these rooms is the corners. How do the walls meet? Mine have huge uneven gaps and need corner moulding. It used to have a quarter round, which I hated and have replaced with a square 1x1. I also had holes that were cut in - to get into to the attic shoulder walls - and have had to devise covers for these. Another question you might want to consider is fire safety. It should be noted that gyproc will give you a bit more time than wood, I think. Ours is a small simple house and egress is comparatively straightforward. If yours is more complicated, and if grandkids are involved, you might want a better fire-rated wall material, and that would argue for removal and gyproc. I am not a fan of multiple layers on walls - had trouble even doing the 1/8 inch ply. Maybe we just have so little space I hate to lose even an inch, plus there is spacing out the moulding, and it's messy to get through. So if you are going to do drywall, I would tend toward removal of the beadboard. You could preserve it and use it instead as wainscot, perhaps. Or as fencing. Or as moulding. Or give it away. But wow, unpainted old beadboard? I bet it's nice wood if you refinish it, but I'm not sure I'd feel obligated to keep it on the walls as it is, holes and all. Wood can actually be used around a tub; it's more resilient with water than you'd think. Karin L

I should have written shellac based primer---NON water based. BIN is expensive by the 5 gallon, but not by the gallon, considering the amount of work it eliminates and the almost lifetime protection. Plus, BIN is thin enough to not fill in the groves in the beadboard. BIN is an interior primer, so if that ceiling is on an outside porch, the correct primer(from Zinsser) is Bullseye. Kilz, in my experience is a second class stain blocker---way too thick for detailed paint jobs, like beadboard. Paint is another entire bees nest of opinions. I personally prefer Sherwin Williams. However, when it comes to interior ceiling paint, one brand is just one brand. Interior ceiling paint has the least wear/tear and only has smoke/etc. as a weathering agent. Most folks never notice how a ceiling darkens unless there are glaring differences.

graywings, How true! "Beadboard is a lovely touch in the right house. But otherwise it is a fad - beadboard is to 2012 what wallpaper border was to 1990". I love the 3 1/4" or larger tongue in groove board, like the old pine paneling looked, and you can still get that for beadboard, but it sure is expensive. We were going to get some wider tongue and groove for our kitchen in the Virginia house, but we had to buy a minimum of 900 feet to get the one we wanted, and were not ready for that much commitment to beadboard! lol We had seen it in a house that was being built applied on a tall wall going up 2 stories (w/10' ceilings) and it was a round wall. It was gorgeous, and we fell in love with it. The house being on the shore it was so appropriate for the look of the install and the feel of the house.

Thanks ctycdm. I wish we had done mdf instead of this, but dh wouldn't hear of it. There are so many knot holes and rough places to sand and fill in this. I've seen that crown molding, but it looks like it will have to have something behind it to attach to, right? wi-sailorgirl, I started caulking between the planks. Dh didn't want me too, so he will not be happy when he sees it, if he even notices. But the gap was such a dark line that I felt I had to, and it looks a lot better that way. Of course I had almost half of it painted with 2 coats before I decided to caulk one and see what it looked like. Ugh.