Rachel- You might try Maxwell's cotton canvas idea on one wall first. You may find it refreshing to not have all four walls covered in wood. If the room is small, I can easily see how intimidating four wooden walls could be. BUT, I think the wood would work really well as an accent wall.

I am also a fan of the Russian Cabin. My only nitpicky issue would be that the previous renter didn't use random lengths of wood. But yeah, I can see how four walls of the stuff could be a bit too much.

Anyway, Flor carpet tiles on the walls may be interesting and easily removed when you move and reused for something else. They are as colorful or drab as you want them to be, and they are pretty cheap, all things considered.

A renter did this to the walls?
Wouldn't the past renter or the super be responsible for removing it?

Miss rachel:
paint 'em white.

or hang some large scale textiles -- ethic or tribal rugs, curtains, banners -- on it. I think broken up by art work might make this quirky and cozy.

A few thoughts;

1. It's a very strange look, and yet it's very nicely, neatly done.

2. There are worse things to have for a renter (or ANY apartment dweller) than an extra layer of wood in your walls to keep noise from passing through walls, regardless of whether it's your noise or your neighbor's!

3. I'd take this as an opportunity to play up how different it is by doing things like emphasizing the horizontal things going on in there. Hang some big framed bits of color, instead of pictures.

4. If you put holes in that wood to hang things, you could always just use wood putty instead of spackle once you're getting ready to leave.

5. If you can buy miles and miles of screen wire, you could pleat it horizontally and staple it into place right at those vertical molding "seams" there. At least on one wall, and then light that from below, and see what the light does through it. That might seem KIND of like tulle or like sheers and KIND of outdoorsy.

That's about all I can think of for now.

I agree with Maxwell. After making sure you will be happy with the color, get canvas, felt, or other long bolts of inexpensive fabric.

To make the wall(s) look right, sew, hot glue, or use other adhesive to join the bolts of fabric together. Due to the thickness of your paneling you may need to pad the wall underneath the fabric. To do that, get some rolls of synthetic furniture batting from a fabric or arts and crafts store. Adhere the batting to the wall with two-sided tape or something that won't ruin the paneling, since your landlord apparently wants to keep it. Then staple the giant sheet of fabric around the perimeter of the wall(s). Use wallpapering techniques to get the fabric around wall switches and electrical outlets.

Upholstering a wall is an involved procedure, so you may want to start with just one wall and see how it turns out. Nevertheless the result should be a richly upholstered wall, with some soundproofing benefits. Good luck!

O.K. Obviously, I don't know what your style is, but if it were me, I would do something fun with it. I think you would drive yourself absolutely nuts if you tried to cover it up. You've got a lot of corners and edges to deal with.

I would find some good astroturf. By good I mean something that looks more like grass and has a sturdy backing. If you cannot find sturdy astroturf you could get the standard stuff and glue it to wallboard that you have cut into squares or rectangles. Come up with a pattern that you like and adhere the panels to the wall accordingly. If you've got a big wall you could try a brick pattern.

Or, you could do clusters of patterns of the turf. This would be less of an undertaking and accomplish the same goal of getting the eye to focus on something else.

If this idea remotely interests you, take a look at this link:
http://www.folliachicago.com/
Look for the grass on the wall.
Then, take a look at this link and imagine that grass how I described it on these walls:
http://www.avecrestaurant.com/new/images.html

I forgot to explain that the panels of turf would be spaced out allowing the wood paneling to show through as negative space.

If you don't want a taught, tailored fabric wall, you could also run a length of thin aircraft cable from corner to corner (using eye hooks and a turnbuckle to make it taught) and get inexpensive clips from IKEA for drapery. Or use a traditional rod and rings or hooks. If you wanted to hang artwork or a mirror in front of the drapes, you could mount a knob or hook to the wall that would stick out between fabric panels and use decorative cloth ribbon instead of picture wire.

Erg. I'd paint it. Maybe the photo doesn't do the wood tone justice, but I HATE that particular shade of honey pine. White-painted paneling looks quite attractive.

I know a lot of people worship the look of wooden walls, but Doppelganger has a point, but you'll have to see if the landlord will consider you to be his hero after the weird thing of your predecessor, or whether he loved what the person did.

You don't seem to have any window treatments (though I think I see traverse rods) and no art on the walls.

Put some of both in, and your walls will go from scene-stealer to supporting player.

And, Ikea bashers, look away... I think the model rooms of Ikea, with their faint Nordic-cabin leitmotif, hold great inspiration for solving your room's issues. (Yes, I said it... Ikea as style resource, not just budget necessity!!)

try a floral stencil along the top of the wall... an ivy perhaps.

Check out these Danish interior shots on Decor8. Fantastic decorating with wood paneling ideas.

http://decor8.blogspot.com/2007/09/danish-interiors-swoon.html

If you're ever in Red Hook, stop by Baked, which is a bakery on Van Brunt a few blocks up from the Fairway. They've done a great job decorating with wood paneling, although it's definitely lighter. (I agree about that honey brown). Maybe the landlord would allow you to do some kind of whitewash?

www.bakednyc.com
www.bakedshop.com

The second link gives a sort of sense of their style... whitewashed antlers and wood paneling etc.

Remove, fill in holes and paint
or
Wallpaper over with heavy lining paper (is fairly cheap), and paint
Good luck!

use panels of fabric on a track like this http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1222/1342730796_767ad6ecf8_o.jpg but in a neutral color much lighter like cream or white, then leave some spaces open to show the wood and hang artwork. Also, place small accent floor lights aiming upward between the walls and the panels of fabric to get a nice light coming through the fabric in the evening and help with the overall "mood" of the room.

Ps some hospital supply companies have large tracks.. very long so you could avoid buying all those smaller tracks. My sister is using a similar solution for her bathroom shower curtain as she is living in an old firehouse and the ceiling is SO high. She has the worlds tallest shower curtain and it looks AWESOME!

A great source for fabric for a project like this is Lowes or Home Depot. Yup- think about paint dropclothes. They are huge and inexpensive- you can dye them, use big grommets, and hang them on rods floor to ceiling. It might even be cheaper than painting them (which is my second choice for you).

are you allowed to paint it? this is a cool look. .

http://www.dominomag.com/magazine/2007/08/sweeps_oct07_070828?slide=40

Definitely paint it white.

Just paint the walls - that will get rid of the popsicle stick effect.

I would treat this just like any other wall. Think of the wood as just a brown color on one wall. Okay, so it's got a little texture! Paint it whatever color you like. It doesn't have to be a different color than the others. In fact, I think if you paint it white and the other 3 green (for example) it will look like aluminum siding or something. Keep it all the same and it'll be great.

If you have any other decorating questions, I do a design thing on my blog every Tuesday.

Astroturf??? Ohmygosh, I can't believe people use that any where else but a football field.

I agree with the white paint suggestions. You will be amazed what paint does to wood paneling.