Guest Author - Kathy Clark

This is a must read article for anyone who is considering painting over paneling.

When I bought my home, I fell in love with the floor plan, but detested the hideous, dark paneling that made up the bathroom and kitchen cabinets. I’m sure in the 1970’s when the house was constructed, dark, hideous paneling was all the rage. Nevertheless, time marches on and home interiors age like we do, although not as gracefully of course.

The thought of actually painting paneling was terrifying. After countless hours of research on the internet, I was all the more afraid to tackle such a task. Everything I read seemed ominous, results were not guaranteed and most articles had a dreadful tone of looming catastrophic results.

I’m adventurous when it comes to some things, and knew the worst that could happen was that I’d have to buy new cabinets. I decided to begin small and tackle the bathroom cabinets first.

After removing the doors and all hardware, the surfaces were meticulously cleaned with TSP. The grooves received particular attention since those were going to be filled with putty and sanded.

Once the cabinets were cleaned, rinsed and dry, wood putty was applied to the grooves and the old hardware holes using a small putty knife. The putty chosen was one that dries hard enough to drive nails through. That was necessary since new hardware was going to be installed and there was a possibility that the screw holes would not line up.

When the putty was dry, it was sanded down using a fine grade sand paper then a second application of putty was applied and again sanded. Although putty labels claim the product will not shrink, it almost inevitably does. If you don’t want to see the lines after you’ve painted, it’s important to repeat the filling and sanding process.

The next step was priming the paneling. I used KILZ only because I had used it in the past and was satisfied with the way it performed. The first coat was unimpressive, it was rather blotchy and did not cover in one coat as the product claimed it would. Once the first coat was dry, a second coat was applied and that adhered nicely, completely covering the dark color.

The next step was applying the paint. I choose to use a roller rather than a brush merely because I like the effect a roller leaves. Since the cabinet doors are so flat, light reflects off of them and brush strokes would leave unappealing lines. I choose a semi-gloss latex paint and it went on smoothly, not requiring a second coat.

When the paint dried, the new hardware was installed and the cabinet was reassembled. It turned out wonderfully and has held up tremendously.

After seeing the enormous difference in the bathroom, I decided to tackle the entire kitchen. It took approximately six weeks to complete the entire project primarily because of the preference to use oil base paint rather than latex. The only step in the process that was changed while doing the kitchen cabinets was to lightly sand the first coat of paint to remove some of the raised marks left by the roller. I found the oil base paint to have a thicker consistency than the latex paint.

Since new hardware is relatively costly, spray paint matching the new pewter pulls allowed the hinges to be salvaged and reused. The kitchen was transformed from a dark, dated paneled room to a bright, inviting room with hard, washable cabinetry.