Should We Paint Wood Paneling?

Hey all, it’s Ginny here with another design agony and this time we’re talking about painting wood paneling. I know it’s ugly paneling, but the built-ins are beautiful solid wood and very high quality.

I feel like the room is dark (the curtains aren’t helping), and I haven’t put any style/decor effort in because I don’t love the space.

And if I leave the built-ins as is, do I paint the paneling that’s behind them – you can see it in the shelf space. From the before photos you can see that the bones are pretty good, and the cabinet doors are simple in style with no fussy flourishes. We narrowed it down to two main design directions (white vs blue) that Mickey could follow, and in both instances we recommended painting all of the wood work in the same color, including the shelves, framing and back wall.

With what you have said about the rest of your house being light and airy it might be nice to bring that theme into this room too. It will feel super fresh and compliment the amount of natural lighting you have coming in through the windows.

With either drapes or shades, you’re going to lose some light because they are mounted on the inside and will end up covering part of the window. This could be a super cosy reading room, and you already have the leather chairs that would look amazing against the blue.

We’re also suggesting to do the fabric on the built-ins blue too, with maybe a stripe or pattern to give some texture. They wasted no time at all in painting the room and sent us some progress shots along with a note:

Our den is a million times better now and we LOVE the blue – even my husband is glad we made the switch 🙂 I couldn’t have done it without your help! And I think swapping out some of the wood photo frames to black on the shelves will help them bring in another colour to the room.

Even though I don’t love the idea of blocking the light, I might be tempted to hang roman shades on the windows just to add some softness for the colder months.

I also like the pop of white from the seat bench but I’d still love to see a patterned fabric on here or even a throw blanket draped over. I’m actually really glad they went with the blue because it makes it feel like a cozy library and really modernizes the paneling. If it were my space I’d totally want to hang out here and read a book with a cup of tea.