How do you paint wood paneling and should I fill in the grooves to make it look smoother? What kind of paint?

I am really wanting to lighten up my living room and the paneling is so old fashioned! What do I need to do it correctly? Do I need to feel in the grooves of the paneling to make it smoother? And what kind of paint would you recommend?How do you paint wood paneling and should I fill in the grooves to make it look smoother? What kind of paint?
Prior to priming the paneling, either lightly sand or wash with TSP to remove the gloss and oils. Prime, using a good quality primer such as Benjamin Moore Fresh Start. If you want to fill the grooves in, Use joint compound after you prime, sand lightly, and prime again. Apply 2 coats of your finish paint and you are good to go. For finish I use Benjamin Moore Super Spec. It's a little pricey, but it's great paint, and it's cheaper than their Regal line. If you plan to paint the paneling a dark color, have your primer tinted. This will help with coverage. Good luck.How do you paint wood paneling and should I fill in the grooves to make it look smoother? What kind of paint?
Since you want the wall smooth fill the grooves with some spackle let dry then sand the whole wall, then put a primer coat of paint then paint the wall to desire color. Or don't worry about the grooves still paint a primer coat and use two colors a paint every other flats of the panel and use a third color and paint the grooves.It your choose.
I used behr eggshell finish painting the panneling in my home, I did prime first making sure to use a color that will be easily covered by the paint color I picked out. as long as you cover well with primer you should have no problem. plus if you prime good you shouldn't really have to worry about drips cause you won't have to push very hard to cover with paint.. unless you have some skill in spackling, I wouldn't recomend filling the grooves cause you'll have to almost do an entire skim coat over the whole wall to make i look right. thats what I did in my bathroom.
We used Kilz primer to cover our paneling, then painted right over it with plain old interior paint. We used a brush to get into all of the grooves then rolled the rest and it came out great.
Doing this is not the ';correct'; way to solve the problem. Where the paneling joins the next sheet, it will crack due to expansion and contraction.
Just prime and paint. It'll look like bead-board or W-11. Use a sprayer though, brush marks look cheesy, and rollers will drip (cuz of the grooves).


A little wagner one ought to do it.

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