Ok here's a question for all my home stager and interior designer collegues: I had a friend approach me today with giving her ideas on what the easiest way would be to deal with unwanted wall paneling. Of course, if you have the resourses and time to do so, you could just tear the paneling down and put up new sheet rock and paint. That of course is the most obvious and first choice of most people. However, she just didn't want to do that, (I suppose to save the time and costs of doing so). Painting over the paneling is the next most obvious choice as we all know this can really brighten and change the overall look of the paneling. However, this as well, was not an option she desired. So I suggested to her that I had seen on TV once that you could spackle the groves of the paneling until you had a smooth wall and then sand, prime, and paint. Yet again, she complained that would just take way too much time. (Quite honestly, I really have no idea how effective that method is anyway since I've never had the need to try it). She then suggested another method and wanted my thoughts on putting up wall paper to act as sort of an underlay or base for the wall to cover the groves and then paint over it. She even offered that there is a special kind of wall paper specifically designed for this and wondered if I had ever seen where to buy this type of wallpaper. Now for my question: Has anyone ever heard of such wallpaper and where you can buy such a creature? Does anyone have any feedback on how well this method works and how complex it is or is not. Any comments would be appreciated as I am sure in this industry there are many of stagers, home flippers and interior designers who may have come across unwanted paneling from time to time and needed a quick fix. Thanks for your input.
I had a seller that had wood paneling and I convinced them to paint it. It did take some convincing but it looked so much better. If you go the paint route, you probably should apply a layer of Kilz primer - get it tinted to whatever color your using. Painting would be the quickest and least expensive way to go. Go to Google Images and type in Paint Wood Wallpaper Before and After and you'll get lots of images that might help convince her.
You can also apply wallpaper on panelling, it is a thicker wallpaper than normal and any wallpaper supplier should have it. An anaglypta wallpaper would be good because it has a raised texture and will not show the paneling joints as bad and a smooth wallpaper. The adhesive is the key. I have removed wallpaper from paneling that wasn't properly applied and it practically fell off.
Thank you Helen. I learn something new everyday. I never heard of putting wallpaper over wood paneling before this. I will certainly pass this info on to her, and try to convince her to paint. I agree paint is probably the best option of the 3. She says she's done the wallpaper treatment before on smaller walls and wants to give it a try again on the larger wall. I'm pretty sceptical. Thanks again.
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