When we bought our 1970’s house it was like a time capsule. You could have filmed “That 70’s Show” there. It needed a change. In this article we’ll look at how to paint over 1970’s fake wood paneling in 4 simple steps.
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Note: I’m not a professional painter or renovator. I’m a DIY homeowner. These are the steps I took to paint over the 70’s wood paneling in our house. I’ve repeated these steps in several rooms throughout my house and they’ve worked well for me. Hopefully this article will help you too, but as disclaimer – do this at your own risk. I can’t be held responsible for any failures that may occur after reading this. If in doubt you can call a professional painter. Thank you.
What our 1970’s Living Room wall looked like before it was painted…
We renovated a small portion of the house right after moving in, but the whole wall in the living room and dining room was a light-colored wood paneling that we didn’t get around to changing.
It wasn’t pretty, but it was acceptable considering we had so many other house projects to work on.
This is what the wall looked like before I painted it.
How to Paint over 1970’s Fake Wood Paneling
Below I’ll show you the steps I follow when I’m painting wood paneling.
They are simple steps, but it’s not exactly easy. It takes time and effort.
But I think you’ll agree the results are worth it.
Step 1. Move furniture and lightly Sand the Wall
I started by moving all the furniture away from the wall.
Then I removed the old wooden baseboard trim.
The next step was to lightly sand the entire wall.
I used belt sander for most of it and a palm sander for some tighter spaces.
Because the wood paneling is such a smooth surface I wanted to scuff it up a bit so the primer and paint would adhere better.
You can see the belt sander kind of got away from me in a couple spots. But because it has a flat bottom it doesn’t gouge into the wall.
Then I used a rag and vacuum to clean up the dust.
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Step 2. Prime the Wood Paneling
Use a paint brush to apply primer to gaps first… then roll the wall.
We used a paint brush to prime the vertical slats first as well as along the ceiling and floor. We chose a No V.O.C. primer from Home Hardware (a Canadian hardware store).
The wood paneling is very smooth and I didn’t want to use a thick roller to try and push the paint down into the slats and risk having the excess paint cause dripping.
Who knows, rolling it on may have got into the depths of the slats without a mess, but we elected this method.
So we painted the gaps in the paneling with a brush first.
Then I rolled on the primer with a low pile roller intended for smooth surfaces. This completed the first coat of primer.
Since the first coat of primer was thin to avoid drips, we rolled a second coat of primer on.
Note: after brushing on the primer in the vertical slats I didn’t brush it on again.
You can see in the picture above that the brushed on primer was much thicker than the rolled-on primer.
You’ll have to judge your project to determine if you’ll need to paint the vertical slats with a second coat of primer or not.
Step 3. Paint the Wood paneling
Once we had two coats of primer on the wall I began painting.
The lady at the paint counter of our hardware store said after priming it I should do another light sanding. She said the primer will sometimes cause the grain of the wood paneling to stick out a bit and be textured.
But due to my dislike of sanding and some time constraints I didn’t take her advice. I think it still turned out pretty good though.
Once again I used a paintbrush to apply the paint to the vertical gaps (indents between the two boards), and to “cut in” against the ceiling and the floor.
Then I rolled the paint on with a low-pile roller.
Your hard work and patience will be worth the effort!
This job took me a lot longer than it probably should have.
I ended up applying 3 coats of Velvet latex paint.
I was worried that if I applied too heavy of a coat of paint that it would run and cause drip marks. So I rolled fairly light coats of paint.
Did I need to do this? Probably not but I’m not a professional painter…I’m just a DIY homeowner who learns more on every project.
It was after two coats of paint and it still looked patchy that I said, “Hey, I don’t know how to paint a wall properly.” So I turned to YouTube and watched some videos on painting correctly.
They said I should put enough paint on, and work quickly enough that the paint has a “wet edge.” So on the third coat of paint I followed this advice and rolled quicker so the edges didn’t start to dry and this avoided the patchy look.
After two coats of primer and three coats of paint I was finished.
I’m happy with the result.
Step 4. Put the Baseboard trim and door & window casings back on
I nailed up some new white baseboard trim.
I think I’ll put some quarter-round trim between the top of the wall and ceiling, and eventually replace the black electrical outlet with a new white one.
But for now I’ll sit back and enjoy the view.
The wood paneling painted white changes the look of the entire room. Makes the entire living room look so much brighter and more inviting.
It is amazing what some paint will do…it looks like a room makeover and all it took was some primer, paint, baseboards, and some time.
And now family photos don’t have that “brown monster” of a wall lurking in the background.
I hope you’ve enjoyed my 4 steps on how to paint over 1970’s fake wood paneling.
If you have any other tips on how to modernize a 1970’s house let me know in the comments.
Up Next:
The Mint-green Bedroom Makeover for LESS than $500
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Check out these other fun DIY projects:
- Build your own Rustic Raised Garden Bed
- Laundry Room Makeover (how we repurposed old kitchen cabinets in our laundry room)
Toddler Kitchen Stool (DIY helper stool for your little one)
Thank you.
Tim from LearnAlongWithMe.com
Tim worked in construction for a few years before going to university. Then he worked in a pharmacy for 10 years and now works as a full-time writer and online publisher. He has experience in several different, far-reaching lines of work.
“I sincerely hope you find the articles helpful and informative.”
Tim from LearnAlongWithMe.com
I have a room that looks exactly like your “before” room! For months that room has been on my “to do” list but a total bathroom renovation came first. I plan to use Kilz for the paneling as my primer. To update the room even more I plan to replace the window and door facings with craftsman style trim. . . no miter angles (just straight cuts). To take it even farther you can use 1×6 for baseboards and 1×4 for crown molding. I had also thought of doing board n’ batten while leaving the groves on the bottom but filling in the groves above the board n’ batten. The height of the board n’ batten would be close to 5’. I will paint the bottom white while painting the top a different color.
Hope this gives you some ideas!
Hi Bonnie,
That gives me tons of ideas. I love what you said about the board and batten. That is a very clever way to make the most of your existing panels.
And updating the baseboards and other trim does absolute wonders!
I have always resort to mitre angles. Maybe next time I should try the craftsman style
Thank you again for your comment. I really appreciate it.
I hope to paint my living room as well as the kitchen. now that we have more time due to covid. Our entire house has wall paneling . Thanks for making it simple to follow . I am not sure about white . I guess growing up in a house where everything was white was too much ! Blue or green seems nice! now that we have more time due to covid!Abigal
I’m glad you enjoyed the article. It’s funny the influence our childhood homes have on us. ? I hope your project goes well.
What about doing half dark color and top part white
In my small chalet, I have all kinds of fake wood panneling from the 70s. Most of it was covered with dated wallpaper. So I stripped it all to find the walls covered in mismatched fake wood panels. Some actually are wood. Others look like a photograph of wood. Some are glossy. Others not so glossy. Now I understand why they were covered with wallpaper. I am wondering if there is any one type of pannelling that cannot be painted … like the one that looks like a photograph of wood on the panel. They are also different colors of wood. In those days they used what they could. Any advice you can provide would be appreciated.
Hi Michelle,
In our house there was a variety of paneling too: from really glossy to just slightly glossy.
Keeping in mind I’m not an expert painter, but in my experience, the prep work before the painting of the paneling is very important.
Sanding the paneling to scuff it up is important.
And then don’t skimp on the primer. Ask your local paint store to get you a good primer. Tell them what you need it for.
If you don’t do these initial steps, any paint you put on it could peel off.
I hope that helps.
Tim
We wanted our wood paneling to look like dry wall. We filled the gaps with spackling. One coat was applied and allowed to dry. Then sanded smooth. A second coat was applied, allowed to dry and sanded smooth. This is very important since the one spot that wasn’t smooth enough shows up in the evening when lights are turned on. This is very time consuming, but worth it. We didn’t remove any trim either. Then we put paintable wallpaper over the paneling and painted it. It looks like dry wall.
That’s very cool Dianne. Thanks for sharing. I’ve heard that it time-consuming doing that and I’ve been a little apprehensive to ever try it for that very reason. But I bet the results look awesome.
Thanks again.
Tim