I‘ve begun painting the knotty pine paneling extravaganza room. The room is riddled with an array of woods — everything from the gorgeous wood of one original door (which will remain untouched) to the 1960′s not-tongue-and-groove knotty pine to the wood of the sliding door (’70s vintage) to a modern wood-ish ceiling fan to the new wood front door to a variety of moldings and baseboards.
And, of course, the faux wood laminate over the original wood floors.
The plan is this:
I‘ve begun by painting the one wallpapered wall. The paper itself was in surprisingly good shape, but it was of late ’60s – early ’70s vintage, and just drug the room right down.
It was primed and is now about 3/4s of the way painted with a very pale sage-y green called glimmer.
Next is the sliding door and trim on that wall: bright white enamel. Ditto the front door and, yes, the ceiling fan.
And the bay window, which is yet another variety of wood. Gorgeous window — but too many wood types!
Then, I begin cleaning and priming the wood paneling. I should remove it and do new drywall, but I have a limited amount of money to work with and other projects in the chute … like replacing the ancient sliding glass doors in the kitchen with french doors. My sister went through an identical sliding glass door at my dad’s house. I’m the one who took her to the emergency room. I refuse to go through that again.
So the decision is made and painting has commenced. Updates as the situation warrants.
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Oh, yea, and the knotty pine will be painted with a slightly darker sage-y green — either Alpine Shadow or Balsam. Haven’t decided which yet.
The almost finished wall has already set the room free. It’s brightened it right up and made it feel so wonderfully clean and big.
I’m glad I’ve decided, against all conventional wisdom, of course.
Conventional, yes, that’s me. When it comes to decorating, I suppose I am.
No, not just you – everyone!
Eg, the people I work with are horrified, absolutely horrified.
The only person who isn’t is my sister – but she *is* my sister, after all.
Besides, I suspect, had I been clearer about just how many different woods there are in that room, you would have said PAINT!!
It takes me a while to clarify just what the problem is. And when I sat down and actually looked, it was like, well, d’oh.
I just went in and counted seven different wood colors and grains. That was a quick count. No wonder the room feels not just like a dungeon, but like smething out of a carnival.
Make that 8 different wood grains and colors — 9 if you count the still other wood in the kitchen that you can see from the room.
I think you are right! I just “saw” the paneling in my mind without all the – ahem – accoutrements. And the paneling in the den in this house is the expensive tongue-and-groove stuff, so I suppose I was thinking of that too.
I do like color. We’ve had some fairly dramatic room colors in our last two houses.
Actually, I think it might be 11 or 12 different woods you can see both in and from that room.
Fortunately, other than the laminate and the atrocities in the kitchen (think: more wood paneling and an added on butcher block counter from the 60′s or 70′s), it’s all original or very *very* nice wood – so it stays.
I wanted it to work, too. But alas — I’m just ADD enough that it’s driving me stark raving mad.
The house I moved into in 97 was like that. Lots of medium to dark wood laminate paneling. The day the house closed, me, my daughter, three of her rather large boy friends and my boyfriend at the time had the paneling in the living room down and out the door. We were lucky that underneath the cheap paneling was drywall. Not in good shape, but we didn’t have to replace it. A bucket of drywall mud, large, medium and small trowels, and a thick paint roller was all I needed (oh, and some time) to make the walls paintable. Roll on the mud, let it dry somewhat and use the trowels to “knockdown” the mud to your style of wall. Prime and paint. I did that in a huge living room, kitchen and bedroom.
Biscuit, if you are moving to Puerto Rico, why are you putting so much work in this house? Just asking.
Oh, I’m not moving there. I’m being sent to a PRIORITY THREE!!!!!! or somesuch workshop on helping at-risk students through college.
maracatu is in Puerto Rico — I’m actually hoping to meet him if (90% sure, but they’re waiting til the last minute to tell us, dammit!) I go, but given the schedule they have us on and his absurd schedule, it’s a long shot.
Oh, well I’m glad you get to see Puerto Rico. I’ve gotten into the cuisine and culture and would like to visit “someday”. Sounds like a great place. It’s so funny that it’s just sorta a state and not a state. Crazy and not fair.
btw, you’ve inspired me about going ahead and taking down the paneling. Some investigative banging on it suggests the walls are in pretty good shape. Except in one spot.
Besides, it will probably be about as easy as cleaning it and priming it priming it priming it (I’ve read this stuff is horrid to paint over).
OMG, it is. I painted the stuff in the sun room and had to repaint several times over the last 10 years. You will be better off getting the mud and “just doing it”! BTW, the paint I used was Behr eggshell or satin from Home Depot and a good hide primer. I used a dark color primer on a darker color I used and the “Haze” color which was a beigey/greygy color, I used a white primer. You can actually have primer tinted. I know Home Depot is evil, but that paint is wonderful to use and to clean later. A good primer and that paint over one or two coats is a durable wall. I did that in, as I said 97 and when I sold the home in 07 I just had to do touch up on most of the walls!
Awesome. Behr makes the best stuff for decking, too.
The problem now: all the molding around the windows is like TOTALLY ONE with the paneling, it’s that snug.
I really don’t want to redo the molding. It’s not original, at least not most of it, but it has a very nice shape to it and will look great painted.
Hrrrm. This will have to wait til after I get back from P.R.
I’m off to put primer on the front door (which is a very heavy, very nice wood door, but yet another wood color and grain — my new philosophy: only one wood color, type and grain per room, people)
If there are gaps in the non tongue and groove paneling, you can use latex caulk to seal it and not have to apply new drywall. Do not use silicone caulk, because paint will not stick to it, but will to the latex kind. That will also ward off any air infiltration, so it will save you money of heating and cooling. Latex caulk is cheap, too, and is fine for areas out of the sun and excessive moisture. You can even apply it over the primer, if you let it cure and go back over it with a fresh primer coat before you paint. Just be sure to feather it out with a proper knife so the joint does not show. Warmest regards, Doc.
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