Painting wood paneling success?

You can and I have. It looks good. All you need to remember is to prime the panels. Ask someone at your hardware store where you go for paint what they have for that and they will show you. Lowes' has a section in their store just for this. Good luck!

Like any painting job, the key is the prep. You can hide the grooves in the paneling if you like, or you can leave them and just paint over it. Start by filling any gouges, nicks, and nail holes. Next, sand with 80-100 grit paper. This will give the primer some tooth. Wipe the dust off of the walls and prime. Use a good primer, such as Benjamin Moore Fresh Start or Zinsser 1-2-3. If you are leaving the grooves and painting a dark color, have your primer tinted. This will help with coverage on the finish paint. I would use a slight sheen, such as eggshell or satin, but don't use semi gloss.

In order to cover the grooves, follow the steps above up through the priming. Next, fill the grooves with a coat of joint compound. It may take 2 coats to fill evenly. Next, use a drywall sander to smooth out the wall. Apply another coat of primer (tinted if necessary), then apply your finish coat. Remember that the more sheen you have on the wall, the more imperfections it will show. Use a quality paint, such as Benjamin Moore or Sherwin-Williams for best coverage and durability. Hope this helps.

You can paint wood veneer paneling by first cleaning it very well and using a good "stain seal" primer before the finish coat. What you'll end up with is exactly what you'd expect, paint on paneling. I'd use a flat or satin sheen or else you'll show every little dent and nail hole in the panel. If it were my place I'd tear the paneling off but you need to be aware that you'll likey need to do a lot of wall repair before you can paint. In most cases, paneling was installed in older homes to hide issues with the plaster.

If there is sheetrock there, you'll get a better result by tearing out the paneling. Beware, though, that you will have a lot of small holes to patch. Patching them shouldn't be hard - just a little spackling. The easiest way is probably to do one room at a time.

If you decide to paint the paneling, you should sand the paneling first and be sure to use a top quality primer before painting.

My house was and is a fixer upper. In one of the bedrooms we had floor to ceiling wood paneling. I roughed up the surface of the glossy paneling first, then applied sheet rock mud to the grooves. After the mud dried I washed off any excess with a damp cloth, primed with Kilz paint and then painted the walls. 15 years and lots of remodling later you still can't tell that they ever were the "fake" paneling. Good luck and have fun. Older houses have charm and they are a lot of fun to have.