What color would you paint this room?

[glitzy07]

And would you also paint over the wood paneling, or leave it as is?





A few things:
- The wall not pictured is all sheet rock and would be completely painted.
- We're planning to put wood floors in this room this winter/spring.
- This room will be a home office.
- The trim will stay as is (e.g. no painting it white).

Thoughts? Suggestions? I have no clue what I want to do with this room, but at least the wallpaper is all gone after many painful hours of scraping glue.

[Deleted]

Is removing the paneling an option?

[glitzy07]

Oct 14, 2012 18:30:52 GMT -5 @libgrl said:

Is removing the paneling an option?

Not at this time. Possibly eventually, but we're working with what we've got for now. I hate wood paneling with a fiery passion.

[dexteroni]

I would definitely *not* leave the wood paneling as is if you're going to put in wood flooring. Either paint it or remove it. Why is painting the trim not an option? Painting the paneling and window trim white would give the room some much-needed brightness and make it look less basementy. But painted paneling and wood trim will look weird.

[Deleted]

I'd use the money you're planning to spend for the wood floors to take down the paneling instead.

[dexteroni]

Or you could leave paneling unpainted for now and remove it when you put in the wood floors. Until then, it doesn't really matter what color you paint the room, so just find something you like. Not beige or gray, though; it desperately needs some color. Maybe a clay green or a muted darkish blue. I'll try to find examples.

[bunch]

There is no way that I would not paint that paneling. Or the trim.

[dexteroni]

Oct 14, 2012 18:40:22 GMT -5 @ameliapond said:

I'd use the money you're planning to spend for the wood floors to take down the paneling instead.

It wouldn't even cost that much; OP and her DH can take it down themselves for next to nothing. At most they'll have to patch the nail holes and sand, and it will make a world of difference in bringing the room into this century.

[heyrebekah]

My first thought is to paint all the paneling white and the walls above a taupe-y color. I would paint the trim too, but if you don't want to do that it's your house. Bring in some color with some kind of window treatment.

[ddi741]

my FIL has a similar room, he painted the paneling white, left the wood trip (same stain as he has on the floor) and the walls are a beige/yellowish. It really brightened up the room

[glitzy07]

I'm definitely leaning towards painting it. The wood floors are a priority because we tore all the carpet up in the basement and there are currently cement floors down there. My step son will be moving to a bedroom down there in the next year and I want floors done before we move him.

I like the idea of painting the paneling white and leaving the trim wood. I only say that I'm not willing to paint the trim because we have wood trim throughout the house that we're leaving as is. We had white trim at our last place and it was a bitch to keep clean with kids and pets.

Eta: The paneling doesn't have sheet rock behind it as far as we can tell. The reason we're not dealing with it now is more an issue of DH having time this winter because it's his crazy busy season for work. I'll go crazy if the room stays unfinished until he has time. And I'm in no way capable of figuring it out myself.

[Deleted]

for the flooring if that's a basement, I'd price out polished cement. I wouldn't want carpet or wood in a basement in case it ever gets wet.

[Deleted]

Oct 14, 2012 18:48:09 GMT -5 dexteroni said:

Oct 14, 2012 18:40:22 GMT -5 @ameliapond said:

I'd use the money you're planning to spend for the wood floors to take down the paneling instead.

It wouldn't even cost that much; OP and her DH can take it down themselves for next to nothing. At most they'll have to patch the nail holes and sand, and it will make a world of difference in bringing the room into this century.

I know. But if the OP thinks its such a big deal that they have to wait on doing it, she should just hire someone to take care of it.

My entire second floor bedroom is paneled, we tore it down last month and are getting ready to re-drywall.

[cjeanette]

I would paint the paneling white. The color of the wall would be based on the decor that you want in there.

[glitzy07]

Oct 14, 2012 18:40:25 GMT -5 dexteroni said:

Or you could leave paneling unpainted for now and remove it when you put in the wood floors. Until then, it doesn't really matter what color you paint the room, so just find something you like. Not beige or gray, though; it desperately needs some color. Maybe a clay green or a muted darkish blue. I'll try to find examples.

Definitely agree about needing color. Won't be going with beige or anything like that. I love blue/green or turquoise type colors but don't know how it would look with the wood trim. Most of our house is currently warm tones.

[dr.girlfriend]

I would paint the paneling and trim. We painted a wood paneled room and I *love* it. Between a wood floor, recessed lighting, and painting the paneling the room looks twice as big. It went from my most favorite to least favorite room in the house. Here are some before and after pics.

pinterest.com/drgirlfriend/painted-paneling-before-and-after/

[glitzy07]

Oct 14, 2012 20:00:08 GMT -5 @ameliapond said:

Oct 14, 2012 18:48:09 GMT -5 dexteroni said:

It wouldn't even cost that much; OP and her DH can take it down themselves for next to nothing. At most they'll have to patch the nail holes and sand, and it will make a world of difference in bringing the room into this century.

I know. But if the OP thinks its such a big deal that they have to wait on doing it, she should just hire someone to take care of it.

My entire second floor bedroom is paneled, we tore it down last month and are getting ready to re-drywall.

I'm fine with the paneling staying for now, whether it's painted or not. The biggest deal I guess is that I just really want to get the room painted and put together for working from home. I work at home once a week now and have been doing it at the kitchen table.

[megalicious]

My parents have that kind of wood paneling floor to ceiling in their basement. They painted it an off-white and I still think it looks nice--really opens the room up. But, they did make the horrible mistake of painting the trim white too, they should have left it as-is or gone with a darker color for contrast.

[MixedBerryJam]

I would remove the paneling, but leave the wainscotting. If possible, I might think about staining the trim and wainscotting a slightly darker tone, like maybe a fruitwood. Then I would paint the walls a light, cool color, like maybe a very light sky blue or mint green. Then I would installl a light oak floor.

If for some reason the panelling really can't come down (and frankly, that's a possibility since you never know what problem they were trying to cover up with the panelling in the first place), instead of painting it I might "paper" the panelling with a heavy, textured fabric, then pick the wall paint color from that.

ETA: I just saw that this is the basement. I would not put wood floors in a basement. Someone suggested polished cement, but I don't know what that is, so I'll suggest stone/tile. Off to google polished cement.

[pitterwoo]

I really like stained and sealing cement floors, so I'll put in another vote for that. I would paint the paneling a white/off white tone and then paint the room a color that will go with your decor and things you like. You said most of the house is warm tones, so maybe stick with that or a color that you loved from the upstairs could be used in this room as well. If you have something that's working for you then I don't think you need to create something totally different down here.

[glitzy07]

I'll have to look into polished cement, I've never seen that before. It's a split level home, but I don't know if that makes a difference as far as moisture. We want flooring that is pet friendly and carpet hasn't worked well for us in the past with a big dog and muddy spring yards.

I appreciate all the input. I definitely don't consider myself a very competent home decorator, but I'm slowly finding my style

[dexteroni]

Most split levels, at least the ones I remember from growing up, have carpet in that basement-ish room at the bottom of the stairs (whatever you call it). I think it's fine to go with wood. I imagine some people are using laminate now but I think laminate is gross.