Wood Paneling Update- One Room Challenge

Week 2

Helllloooo 70s!!!!  Don’t you just LOVE all the amazing wood paneling in this room?!  Ha!  No one loves wood paneling.  And you can see from this pic, we’ve already painted it and attempted to update it somewhat (it was legit brown oak when we bought the place)…but the painting alone fell short. Below I’m going to share with you how I updated the wood paneling to not look like wood paneling anymore!  It is a pretty incredible and a remarkably easy (yet messy) transformation.

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Length of time for project:  Depends on the amount of wood paneling you need to update.  I did this whole room (which is about 240 sq ft) and it took a couple of days (with lots of breaks for drying in between) to fill the cracks and sand, then finished with the painting in another day or two.

Cost:  Joint compound runs about $10-20, paint varies significantly- I used 1 gallon of Sherwin Williams Pure White for $28 and then also got a Gallon of black paint from amazon.  All told I probably spent about $50 on paint (my joint compound was free from a friend).  You might also need painting supplies if you don’t have those things. I used this cool paint roller that holds paint in the handle and it really sped things up!

What you’ll need:  Joint compound, sanding block, paint, paint supplies (brush, roller).

What I learned:  Buy a low dust joint compound if given the choice.  I’m not complaining because mine was free and it worked perfectly…but it’s not not messy.

Step 1: 

Use a rigid flat putty knife type tool and apply the joint compound into the wood paneling ridges.  Make sure the ridges are completely filled but try to avoid a lot of excess on the surrounding wall as it will save you sanding and mess later.  Let everything dry.  This step goes remarkably fast.  Check out my instagram highlights for video about the process.

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Step 2: 

Once dry, run a wet cloth over everything to smooth out edges and remove any excess product.  This is probably the hardest part of the project as you will definitely get an arm work out!  I rinsed my cloth every few swipes and went over the whole area one time.  Let dry again.

Step 3: 

Go over everything quickly with a sanding block.  I know, you thought you were done after the wet cloth…but I promise that step did help minimize the dust cloud you are about to create!  I recommend wearing a mask, goggles, clothes you don’t care about, and probably a hat too.  Haha.  Then vacuum up your dust so it doesn’t get too out of control.

Step 4: 

Repeat steps 1 through 3 a second time.  Sorry, but you’ll need to do this process twice as the joint compound will shrink slightly with drying and also you may notice a few holes where air bubbles were.  I know, doing the process twice sounds tedious.  But you want it to look smooth, right?!  And it really does go very quickly.

Step 5:

Paint!  I used Sherwin Williams Pure White and needed to do about 3 coats in total.  I used a brush along all the edges and then a roller for the bulk of it.  This paint roller, which is a roller that stores paint in the handle, made the work go super fast!  Highly recommend.  The most tedious part of this product is the cleanup.  I wanted to reuse the roller so I cleaned that too.  If you aren’t saving the roller I think cleanup would go much faster.

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Change in Plan

From a design standpoint, I initially decided to keep my bottom half wall as wood paneling and painted that black using paint I ordered from Amazon. But, spoiler alert, as I was working in the space I realized that the basement was getting water during times of rain. We brought someone in to take a look and they found a foundation crack that required that I disassemble the newly painted black wall. Sad. The positive? It gave me a good excuse to rip out the carpeting and update the flooring.

Unfortunately a couple of the original panels was damaged and I couldn’t find the exact product to replace it. Apparently they don’t make real wood paneling anymore? Who knew? Not that I don’t get it…. So I replaced with a flat panel (that looks like wood paneling?) and filled the ridges of the remaining panels using the steps listed above. I will likely go back and add molding to the bottom half wall for some added interest, but will address that in a future post.

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Final Result- Updated Wood Paneling

Can you believe with just a little elbow grease, joint compound, and paint you can update wood paneling to look like regular drywall?! No need to rip it all out and drywall, just fill the ridges and be on your way! It’s a major time and cost saver.

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If you want to see more about my room plan and upcoming projects, check out my One Room Challenge Week 1 post that goes over the plan and inspiration! And don’t forget to check out all the other amazing guest participants over on the ORC blog!