Saturday, January 24, 2009

Painted Paneling

Here's a look back at the upstairs of our story-and-a-half home.

When we looked at the home while it was on the market, the upstairs bedroom was staged like this:



It was kind of cute, but not our style. We tried. For about 4 or 5 months. The paneling just wasn't our thing. I'm sure it was awesome in the 1950s (right?), and it looks OK in our basement, but it didn't feel like our style in a bedroom. At all.

Our solution was to paint the paneling instead of ripping it out and replacing it with drywall. Before we got started we cleared out the room. Here's what we had to work with:







Regarding the photo above, we have no idea what this little "cove" was originally intended for.

To start this project, we had to prime the paneling. This step was fun because we started to get a preview of what the paneling would look like with paint on it.







We were hoping we could get away with one coat of primer on the paneling before we painted. Unfortunately, the stain on the paneling was bleeding through the primer so for good measure we applied another coat of primer.

Then we used a semi-gloss white paint on the primed paneling. Again, this took two coats for a really finished look. We were thrilled at how much lighter and brighter the room started to look.



The really fun part was applying a color to the white ceiling and angled walls. We picked a color outside of our normal comfort zone... Here's a shot of the color while the 2nd coat was drying.



The ceiling and angled walls took 3 coats of paint.

After all the paint was dry and the room was cleaned up, it was time to bring in some furniture, bedding, and other accessories. We know we still need to add more to the room (lamps, window treatments, and another dresser), but here's the result:







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