Painting dark wall paneling

I would start with Kilz primer. I have found it to work the best. One coat of that, then one or two coats of your color paint, depending on how well it covers, should do it just fine.

Thanks, Kilz primer, I will check it out.

I’d check to see what the paneling is. When we bought our place, the paneling was just a lightweight masonite core thing that had been brad nailed to the wall. Yanking that, touching up the nail holes and painting was easy, and if we’d decided we wanted to lay another sort of paneling over it, that would have been easy too. In fact, when we cedar lined our closets it’s just a ¼” thin layer that would be easier to pull out than to paint over…

-- Dan Lyke, Petaluma California, http://www.flutterby.net/

The only thing I know for sure is the paneling is 26 years old.

It could be anything. I would check it first. Some of the hardboard core stuff has a vinyl coating on it and it doesn’t hold paint very well. Not as well as the real wood anyway. Find a place and check it then you can make a better decision. if it is glued to the wall it could destroy the wallboard. You really don’t want to pull the paper off the surface of the wallboard. If it has a glossy finish on it I would wipe it down with some product like Paso then prime it. This preps the surface to paint. Just follow the instructions. KILZ is good. There are other products out there also.

Clean the wax off first then prime with Kilz and paint. I did this on mine and it lasted for years. I since ripped it down but it did last. Remember it does scratch easy.

-- Bob K. East Northport, NY

I built my house about 34 years ago and most paneling then was actually thin plywood with hardwood veneer. I don’t think that changed drastically untill about 15 to 20 years ago when big box stores started taking over the market and all they look for is cheaper and cheaper products they can mass market… at least that’s the way is happened around my area.