Nothing takes an ’80s child back like Twinkies, Michael Jackson… and some damn fine wood paneling. It was living. My grandma’s basement had it. Your grandma’s basement had it. In this house, it adorned the sunken family room walls. Maybe you’re too young to remember any of this, but we can agree the look DOES NOT RESONATE. It’s got to go … but you need to know how to paint over wood paneling.

When we moved in, attacking the wood paneling was task numero uno. There wasn’t a budget for ripping it down and drywalling. Paint was our only way out.

How We Did It

This is where I tell you not all paint stores are created equal. Even after you’ve combed the interwebs and think you know everything, finding the paint store in your neck of the woods where the employees actually know EVERYTHING (and are happy to repeatedly, patiently talk you through the process required) is golden. In this case, Huntington Paints, Shelton, CT. Turns out, all the paneling would require was a simple wipe down, minimal sanding — one of those handheld sanding sponges will do –and a coat of primer. We could do that — as soon as our three munchkins were down for the night.

And Maroon 5 was pumping. Lots of Maroon 5 fired this task.

You can see to the right of the fireplace, where we tested a couple of pale blues. We went with the ‘Color of the Year’ – Breath of Fresh Air AND THAT WAS A MISTAKE. There’s a fine line between baby blue and what I’d term a ‘coastal’ blue, and for this space we’d crossed it. So we repainted (wish I was kidding) in Brittany Blue. Lesson learned: don’t be swayed by clever marketing!

As far as the painting process, my husband and I worked as a team — one person did the grooves from top to bottom, the other person followed behind with the roller coating the raised surfaces. Not gonna lie, the grooves took a bit more doing — with the pockmarking of the paneling, you had to shove the brush in repeatedly sometimes to get the paint to take. We decided to leave the original crown molding because its hand-scraped look has some personality, the deep brown grounds the space, and I like a nod to the original owners where possible.

… and that was that. The coastal French transformation had begun. We tackled the fireplace next.