So a while back my grandmother's house (all 70's fake wood paneling) had a water leak in the roof and one of the walls to her living room got destroyed. The roof is fixed now but we have to redo one of the walls.
Ideally it would probably be best if we just re-drywalled the whole thing, but we're doing the work ourselves and don't want to spend a lot of time and money, so we just decided the one wall (its the wall with a bay window 3 wall bump-out so it kind of works) would be the only one that changes.
However, now that the drywall is almost all up I'm realizing its still going to look weird.
What color should we paint the drywall and trim? My dad is an engineer so he's just like "we'll do it white" but I think that will just look bad. I'm pretty damn close to colorblind, and it took me forever to realize that my bedroom was painted light blue and my kitchen was painted peach when I was a kid, but its gotta be something other than boring white.
Not an actual photo, but this is pretty close to the paneling.
I've heard of people just painting over the paneling too, but I don't know if that's real wood paneling or the fake kind thats basically flat with a little bit of grain and a mitered stripe every so often. Any advice? Remaining paneling will not be coming down.
So wait, let me make sure I understand. The room has one wall with a bay window. That wall is drywall, but the remaining (three?) walls are wood paneling. Is that right? Where is the door into the room, and what kind of trim does it have? Do the wood paneled walls have base and/or crown, and what color are they? What color is the ceiling? What material and color is the floor? What metal finish are hardware like the light fixture and doorknobs?
My inclination is to paint the one entire wall monochrome: GWB, trims, everything. Put a slightly higher gloss, like satin or semi, on the trims. But I want to know what else is going on in the room before thinking about a color.
(Note to everyone: backbay is a regular around here. If some newbie comes in looking for paint color advice they won't get helpful responses for free.)
All the trim is about 4-5" and matches the paneling exactly, hardwood floor... everything else is hard to explain so I'll grab some photos this week and post them. I never thought of doing it all monochrome... that might be interesting, thanks Donna. Has anyone seen this type of paneling painted over before?
I have this stuff in my basement. Paint it a light cream (Swiss Coffee is good) in a satin finish. I would paint the doors and trim an antique white or very slightly tinted white (not brilliant white) in a semi-gloss (not gloss) finish. It will look very nice, even better than the standard drywall.
Oh, that's more complex than I expected. The sloped dormer sections are more ceiling than wall, which makes color application sloppier, visually.
But nonetheless, they are wall, not ceiling, and paint color changes at outside corners are never allowed. It looks like you have picture-framed primed trim around the windows already? So the window trims will need to be painted? I'd still suggest keeping the GWB and trims all similar in color, but maybe go slightly more assertive on the color of the walls to make a distinction between wall and ceiling plane.
It actually would be nice to paint all the wood paneling too, but that's a big job. Does your grandmother like the wood? Are the rug and light fixture staying? Are there draperies involved? What color are they?
Paint the drywall walls a white that matches the wood. (Stain the wood first, then get samples, roll them out next to the wood, pick the best - you will never be able to match a paint stain before you put it on the product)
This will make the whole room feel larger and lighter while retaining the wood and wood-look.
May 19, 14 9:41 am ·
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Paint to go with 70's fake wood panelings
Hey guys,
So a while back my grandmother's house (all 70's fake wood paneling) had a water leak in the roof and one of the walls to her living room got destroyed. The roof is fixed now but we have to redo one of the walls.
Ideally it would probably be best if we just re-drywalled the whole thing, but we're doing the work ourselves and don't want to spend a lot of time and money, so we just decided the one wall (its the wall with a bay window 3 wall bump-out so it kind of works) would be the only one that changes.
However, now that the drywall is almost all up I'm realizing its still going to look weird.
What color should we paint the drywall and trim? My dad is an engineer so he's just like "we'll do it white" but I think that will just look bad. I'm pretty damn close to colorblind, and it took me forever to realize that my bedroom was painted light blue and my kitchen was painted peach when I was a kid, but its gotta be something other than boring white.
Not an actual photo, but this is pretty close to the paneling.
I've heard of people just painting over the paneling too, but I don't know if that's real wood paneling or the fake kind thats basically flat with a little bit of grain and a mitered stripe every so often. Any advice? Remaining paneling will not be coming down.
So wait, let me make sure I understand. The room has one wall with a bay window. That wall is drywall, but the remaining (three?) walls are wood paneling. Is that right? Where is the door into the room, and what kind of trim does it have? Do the wood paneled walls have base and/or crown, and what color are they? What color is the ceiling? What material and color is the floor? What metal finish are hardware like the light fixture and doorknobs?
My inclination is to paint the one entire wall monochrome: GWB, trims, everything. Put a slightly higher gloss, like satin or semi, on the trims. But I want to know what else is going on in the room before thinking about a color.
(Note to everyone: backbay is a regular around here. If some newbie comes in looking for paint color advice they won't get helpful responses for free.)
There's more to consider - furnishings, floor, etc. Hard to go wrong with white (antique, super or bright). White also brightens the room.
a fish tank of zip lock bags? what's going on there?
do a trompe l'oeil! Leave the wood paneling unpainted.
All the trim is about 4-5" and matches the paneling exactly, hardwood floor... everything else is hard to explain so I'll grab some photos this week and post them. I never thought of doing it all monochrome... that might be interesting, thanks Donna. Has anyone seen this type of paneling painted over before?
I had a house like that once. I used a white stain, then wiped it off to give a whitewash patina... Sort of like this:
Okay this is it. Photo came out a little warm though fyi
I have this stuff in my basement. Paint it a light cream (Swiss Coffee is good) in a satin finish. I would paint the doors and trim an antique white or very slightly tinted white (not brilliant white) in a semi-gloss (not gloss) finish. It will look very nice, even better than the standard drywall.
Oh, that's more complex than I expected. The sloped dormer sections are more ceiling than wall, which makes color application sloppier, visually.
But nonetheless, they are wall, not ceiling, and paint color changes at outside corners are never allowed. It looks like you have picture-framed primed trim around the windows already? So the window trims will need to be painted? I'd still suggest keeping the GWB and trims all similar in color, but maybe go slightly more assertive on the color of the walls to make a distinction between wall and ceiling plane.
It actually would be nice to paint all the wood paneling too, but that's a big job. Does your grandmother like the wood? Are the rug and light fixture staying? Are there draperies involved? What color are they?
Use paint-stain on the wood to make it white.
Paint the drywall walls a white that matches the wood. (Stain the wood first, then get samples, roll them out next to the wood, pick the best - you will never be able to match a paint stain before you put it on the product)
This will make the whole room feel larger and lighter while retaining the wood and wood-look.
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