Goodbye textured paneling!!!

       The first room we have decided to tackle is the "man cave." It's a lower level room in our split-level just off the garage. The room is covered in paneling and it's just not a pretty sight. We could have taken the paneling down but to be quite honest, that's a project in and of itself that we were not willing to complete. Besides, if the paneling is in good shape, you can just prime and paint over it and still achieve great results. Here's how we are transforming our less than desirable paneled "man cave" into something hip trendy and mantastic :)

Note: I would suggest that you paint the ceiling and the trim first so that you don't have to mask off the walls. Trust me this will make your life much easier!

Step one: Wall Prep -We first needed to prep the walls for priming. It's really a good idea to prime paneling because it will give your paint something to adhere to and in addition, it will give it a cleaner look. It's annoying but trust me it will definitely give you better results in the end. We first looked over the walls to make sure there were no nail holes or damage of any kind to the paneling. If your walls do have any holes or damage, make sure you patch those imperfections before priming. Also, this is the time to remove your faceplates and any vent grates. You should also lay down a tarp or drop cloth in the location where you will be painting. (We were not religious about this because we are going to be removing the old dingy carpet in the near future)

Step two: Taping - It is highly recommended that you tape off the windows and doors with painter's tape before you begin priming. I can say that we chose to not tape off because we knew that we would be painting the trim a bright white anyways. The primer is okay to forego the taping on (unless you are using a tinted primer) because the trim paint will just go over anything you get on the trim.

Step three: Applying the Primer - We chose to use the Kilz Odorless White Oil-Based Primer from home depot. I have to say I was very satisfied with it but I would say that if you plan on doing a second coat of primer that you get two gallons. We were scraping by on just one gallon because the paneling soaked up a lot of the primer. We were only able to do one coat but we decided against a second coat because we knew that were were putting a dark color on the walls. If the primer had not covered as well as it did we would have had to put a second coat on. After you open this primer make sure that you mix it like crazy!! One suggestion would be to get a mixer attachment for your drill and this will speed up the process. If you do not mix this oil-based primer properly you will wind up with the consistency of milk and that's not what you want. (Trust me we know from experience haha!) When the primer is mixed properly, it should be the consistency of a typical wall paint. We then used a roller to apply the primer and a paint brush to cut into the areas the roller could not reach. This is after one application of the primer. (Note: We currently have no baseboard in this room so we will just apply new baseboard to cover where we didn't prime to the carpet.)

Wow that carpet looks super nasty!!!

Step four: Painting- We waited until the primer was dry to finally apply color to the wall. This room is going to be Jared's "Man cave," so we chose something pretty dark. The color we chose is called Newburg Green by Benjamin Moore. We used a flat finish because it is much more forgiving when you have less than perfect walls. (Note: the painting is still a work in progress and we will update this post)

After one coat of paint….

After two coats of paint….

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