House Progress: Painting Wood Paneling

When we toured our house and saw the wood-paneled room, we both agreed there was no way we could live with the room being that dark. Every time we walked through the door, I said, "I cannot WAIT to paint that room white." So, with less that one week of homeownership under our belt, we settled in for what turned out to be a three-day endeavor (and still isn't completely over). I don't think it would take three days of solid work, but we had other stuff to do, so it had to be done in chunks.

I started the project by reading about 1,000 tutorials online, some of which recommended de-glossing the walls. It's definitely a stinky project, so make sure you can turn on fans, open windows and wear a mask.

Once the walls were deglossed, we started the tedious task of cutting in with Zinsser 1-2-3 primer. This includes the extremely necessary (and extremely annoying) step of painting inside every single paneling seam. We had a little help from our friend Ashleigh, which made the job go much faster.

Sean, surveying his kingdom.

After about 5 hours, we were fully primed! We left for the night and returned the next day to cut in, paint the seams and paint two coats with Benjamin Moore's White Dove.

White Dove has a little warmth to it and I can't wait to see it in daylight, with art on the walls and the trim painted. I think we're going to paint everything white except the beams and the mantel, for now. The next step is the installation of hardwood floors (!!!), after which we can paint the baseboards.

I feel so accomplished!!