How to Paint Cheap Wood Paneling

On Christmas day after we opened presents we were watching tv and M randomly decided we should start painting our living room.  I thought this was insane but we had a nice four day break ahead of us so why not try one wall?  Our living room is an internal room that is wall to wall wood paneling (the cheap particle board kind).  This is a phase 1 reno for us - it's a way to make the house look better in an affordable way until we can get a contractor in here.

This is the first time we have painted paneling so this was the method we used:

1) Degloss (we used Krud Kutter deglosser and it worked well with low odor)

2) Caulk/fill in nail holes

3) Two coats of primer (fill in nail holes we missed)

4) Two coats of wall color

5) Two coats of trim color

We use Sherwin Williams paints so we went with their multi purpose latex primer and did two thin coats of primer.  When the first coat of primer went on I started freaking out a little.  It looked like it wasn't sticking very well and the brush marks where we cut in looked terrible.  The second coat went on better but I think maybe for painting the doors I will try Glidden Gripper.  We used it on our media cabinet in our old house and while it was kind of tricky to work with, it stuck great on slick surfaces.

After two coats of primer the walls were starting to look better so onto the wall color.  Our favorite wall color is Sherwin Williams Agreeable Grey in Superpaint (flat finish) so we repeated that.  It is a light grey/beige color that changes with the light.  It's a bit of a colder color since it has grey as the base but in this room it is reading a little warmer.  Our trim color is just plain extra white in a gloss enamel finish.

Two coats of primer

Wall color going on...

DONE!

We are still trying to finish the final wall and will this weekend.  We also need to do touch up on every wall but that will be the very last thing we do.  So far it looks awesome and is much more light and bright in here despite the fact that it is an internal room.  We do have one solar tube but it doesn't give off a ton of light.  I really like it!  

Here are some tips if you are thinking about taking the plunge and painting paneling.

1) Use flat paint.  Flat paint is the number one paint that is ideal for touch ups.  We have already had some scratches/marks and flat is far superior to blend in and cover mistakes.  We love Superpaint because it blends great and is also easy to wipe with a wet rag if it gets messy.  It doesn't rub off the walls.

2) Be liberal with your deglosser.  Make sure your rags are heavily saturated because it is the most effective way to treat the walls.  We didn't have to sand but some people might.

3) Enamel finish trim is challenging to work with.  It looks awesome but we have been having issues with it peeling up once we take off our protective blue paint.  We do two coats and we have been having trouble with it curing to the tape.  Have not found a solution yet.