paint paneling or rip it down?

For those of you that have the pleasure of buying a house adorned with ugly 70's paneling- what did you do- paint it or rip it off?

Re: paint paneling or rip it down?

belongs on home sorry.

Re: paint paneling or rip it down?

We painted over it.
It was too expensive to rip it down and put up new sheetrock. We will someday but not now.

Re: paint paneling or rip it down?

Re: paint paneling or rip it down?

Re: paint paneling or rip it down?

Re: paint paneling or rip it down?

I would paint it, we rent a house right now and the whole living room is wood paneling, I HATE it! (thankGod we are moving soon) we weren't allowed to paint it, but I'm sure the room would look much better with it painted....

My aunt had wood paneling in her basement and she painted it and it made the room look so beautiful.

Re: paint paneling or rip it down?

We painted ours in the downstairs area of the house. My house was literally COVERED in paneling. We removed it all upstairs, though. The walls were a wreck underneath, so be careful. If you're not prepared to re-sheetrock, it's almost worth just painting over it.

Re: paint paneling or rip it down?

Depends. Sometimes, painted paneling has a really charming look to it.

Re: paint paneling or rip it down?

Not sure how much work this really would be but I saw a fix tip on one of those home improvement shows on DIY Network about updating wood paneling.

They filled in the lines with plaster - sanded it down until smooth and painted. Looked like a flat wall...maybe something to try if you don't like the look of the paneling

Re: paint paneling or rip it down?

We sheetrocked right over it. Well, I shouldnt say we did it, our contractor did. Ours had already been painted though so I knew that i didnt like the way it came out, and that i wanted sheet rock. I have had friends that painted theirs and it came out okay. I still prefer sheetrock though.

Re: paint paneling or rip it down?

We're tearing it down. Ours is pine board and it's nailed right to the studs (our house is plaster, not sheetrock). We're putting up sheetrock. I'm not a fan of painted paneling - for *me* - it's a very country look, imo, and works well in houses with that look.

Re: paint paneling or rip it down?

We ripped ours down, under that we found 1960's wallpaper, took that down and finally found walls! It was a project but in the long run I'm glad we did it that way. We didn't have to re-sheetrock, only one half wall where when we took down the paneling there was nothing underneath but beams!

Re: paint paneling or rip it down?

4 rooms in our house had wood paneling. It looked horrible when we painted over it. So we did room by room as we had the money and did new sheetrock.

Re: paint paneling or rip it down?

We have wood paneling in our basement, which makes the basement look even darker. We will probably paint over the paneling for now...and eventually resheetrock it.

One baby step at a time...

Re: paint paneling or rip it down?

We had our contractors tear down the paneling and we had them put in new insulation behind the sheetrock.

Re: paint paneling or rip it down?

We had one wall in our house that was paneling, not dark dark, but more of a country look which i personally hated. So DH ripped it down and re-sheetrocked. If you know someone or have the $ to hire someone to re-sheetrock then do it, otherwise paint it. Good luck!

Re: paint paneling or rip it down?

If you're going to be doing work and you can include this - I would rip it down - which is what we did. It was painted over originally - I didn't mind it - but now that it's down and sheetrock and paint up - I don't miss it ONE bit.

Re: paint paneling or rip it down?

Personally I dislike paneling so I would rip and re sheetrock but it's a decent size job to tackle.

Re: paint paneling or rip it down?

we have paneling in one room which we choose to paint. but its my craft room so I like the look fo the paneling in there. If it was my main living space, I would TOTALLY ripe it down!!

Re: paint paneling or rip it down?

We have paneling in our office/playroom - if it weren't such a big job I'd re-sheetrock, but aside from hiring someone to do this, the FRIGGIN DUST and MESS is just not worth it to me right now. We just re-sheetrocked a few other rooms and OMG I couldn't believe the dust that traveled throughout the entire house.

So we'll paint the paneling for now. I actually like the character it gives the walls when paneling is painted - although I think it's key to stick with a very light color. It can sometimes look like something out of a Pottery Barn catalog if that's your style.

Re: paint paneling or rip it down?

in our bedroom it had pink paneling. we took it down... we should have left it up... the walls are horrible we patched up some things we could but painted right over it... its a dark color so it's not oo bad but we should have left it up and painted over it...

in our living room we left it up... and painted over it.. looks fine...

we are now in the processs of putting up some paneling in one of our rooms, with my DD on the way we dont have the $$ to cover a room with 3 walls of different floraled wallpaper!!1 i can't stand it anymore.. and i would like it done before the baby comes

Re: paint paneling or rip it down?

Re: paint paneling or rip it down?

If you have the $, rip it down.

Re: paint paneling or rip it down?

i would rip it down. We had it in our apartment and i hated it. So that would be the first to go if it was me...