hello! My husband and I bought our house about 3 years ago. Both of our parents love the "country" style. His parents fell in love with our kitchen, and i thought i must just not see it. it is covered in panneling and our cuboards are homemade. I like the general layout, i might change a few things, but i can live with it. My challenge is the wood. I am experiencing wood overload! not to mention the laminate counters and lanolium floors. I know how to make decisions about those, but what should i do with all the wood. Would you paint it? maybe make a wainscoating in the eating area and drywall the rest. how about the cupboards? it is not in the budget to get new ones so somehow i have to reface these. PLEASE HELP....any thoughts would be appreciated.

Pic 1 of kitchen

Pic 2 of kitchen/dining table

Pic 3 of dining table

ps. since these photos were taken i have taken down the ugly curtain and removed the white table.
THanks, Christine

If it's in the budget to drywall I would do that if it's not then I would definitely paint the paneling. I love the idea of the beadboard in the eating area.

Cabinets: You can either paint them and use the same hardware/hinges for that vintage country feel or you can use new hinges and add some picture molding to the doors and paint them out for a more modern looking cabinet doors.

Good luck can't wait to see your after photos!

My brother had paneling in his living room. He painted it and it looked great.

Once you paint cabinets they always need painting. Don't close the door entirely on new cabinets. Lots of people save big bucks by using Ikea cabinets. You can also order knock down [assembly required} cabinets for 25% - 35% less than assembled boxed cabinets.

Good luck.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: gee-inthe-dee,

Moved into my home 4 years ago -- large living room was dark panelled -- yuk! I had it painted a soft, buttery yellow with white trim and added white crown moulding and it came out beautiful -- very light and open. The difference was striking and I still have no desire to go through replacing it all with drywall. Maybe someday, but for now it really looks very pretty, updated and light.

Painting the paneling is the way to go! If you do decide to do this, make sure you use a really good primer first. The wood paneling just soaks up the paint. We have several rooms in our house that had paneling (it was so ugly), and we painted them immediately. It totally changes the room and is an inexpensive fix.

We had dark paneling in the den of our last house. Painted it a warm cream and LOVED it! We used something called Sandpaper in a Can or Liquid Sandpaper (something like that) first and then primed and painted. The prep is the most important part, so ask the paint stores for recommendations on what to use to clean and degloss the paneling.

Oh, and ask their recommendation, too, for the best paint and finish to use in a kitchen--i.e., what's going to be most durable and easiest to clean.

Actually ... yours appears to be 3/4" tongue & groove pine, better than just 1/4" paneling. I'd not spend the $ $ $ in sheetrocking the room. If you do, you'll need to either a) remove the T&G pine ... or b) go over it and have to deal with retrimming plus extension jambs at the windows and doors. Either way, you'll have to address the trim work.

Paint it! It'll look nice.

Although I am not really an advocate of re-facing, etc. If the budget is tight, possibly look into new raised or recessed panel doors. Replace the counters with laminate and consider tiling the splash.

I suggest laminate so that if in "x" number of years you guys decide to do a full kitchen re-do, you'll not need to rip out some expensive counter material.

Just my $0.02.

Good luck!

KitchenDesigner, you are spot on! I hadn't seen the photos when I posted about my experience. But sure enough, that's T&G wood, not 1/4" paneling. I've seen T&G pine painted over, and the results were great.

Someone I know whitewashed (or somehow lightned) pine walls. I didn't care much for that result, but maybe somebody else has seen a better job of it.