apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

i like the enclosed shelving, but the matching wood-paneled walls are still bugging me...

That wood is gorgeous. Painting over it would be such a shame.

Nope. I'm still not happy with it.

Off to find a painter...

One of these days, wood paneling is going to come back in style, and everyone who painted over theirs is going to regret it. It will suddenly look awful, like painted-over brick.

This paneling has character. And I bet can tell a few good stories about what has taken place in that room.

Love it.

Wood paneling is in style - good wood paneling. Badly done anything is never in style (except when it's so in fashion few people can look at it critically). This really doesn't look like good quality paneling - if it even looked like the paneling in that more recent post I'd be telling the OP to think about working with it.

Sorry! Posted that on the wrong thread!

Good wood paneling can be shown off. I've never been in favor of painting wood, especially lovely carved wood molding, but as far as paneling goes--it's up to the owner. It can really make a tired, outdated wall look up to date and new. BUT--if you have something really special, like real true oak for instance, I would do everything to avoid painting it!

Wood paneling looks great in a cottage or cabin, especially if it's cedar (which I suspect is the wood used in the above photo). But knotty yellow pine...ew, yuck, bleck, snort, cough...reminds me of growing up in the 80's & 90's on the West Coast in Canada. Every house of my childhood had knotty yellow pine furniture, knotty yellow pine walls, frilly blue curtains, and dishes with little country ducks on them.

I like this paneling. We had similar (dark, real wood) strip paneling in the living room of a rented house in England, and the landlord offered to pull it out and paint, but we did like it.

Wood that looks like "tree" is comforting when you're indoors. Knotty yellow pine is the interior of a tree and often has a glossy coating, so it looks odd and doesn't to me have the same natural feel.

Depending on what you pair it with, you can change the look; it doesn't have to be kuntry kabin.

Isn't it a good thing that there is variety in what people like and don't like? If not, it would be boring.

When I look at sofas and media cabinets featured as high fashion today, I have flashbacks to the 1960's and my parents' living room. The only thing missing from the sofas are the clear custom plastic covers our legs would stick to in hot weather. My mother's blonde wood kidney shaped coffee table would be worth something today, especially with the matching record cabinet that the hi fi record player used to sit on.

I never thought I'd see that kind of furniture again in my life time.

Wrong. Paneling will come back someday, too.

It's all about personal preference. I personally don't like it, so I would paint it. Those of you who do like it, wouldn't. There's no right or wrong here...