The Easy Way To Paint Paneling

This Easy Way To Paint Paneling post will show you how to paint paneling flawlessly.

This project astounding Matt and I! When we bought our first flip house , we were dreading the ugly paneling that covered almost every wall in the basement. We put that project in the back or our minds as we tackled other projects in the house. Now, we have done a million DIY projects over the past few years and any time I learn something new or find a tip that will help other people, I get excited to share it. We found the The Easy Way To Paint Paneling during our flip house renovation and I am excited to share it with you today.  

Let me give you a little background about how this project came about.

Matt and I bought and flipped our first house this past summer. I documented the entire process here on the blog, on the My Creative Day Facebook page (find it HERE) and on my Instagram page (find me HERE).

One of the biggest rooms I want to transform in the flip was the family room in the basement. The entire space was covered with sheets of cheap paneling. UGH!

I knew it could be a fun space for a family, but the paneling made it so dark and depressing that no one would really want to spend much time down there. We had to change it. Before we closed on the house, we went back and forth about what we could do to change the paneling and still stay on our tight budget. We were thinking we would have to drywall the basement and that was going to make a huge dent in our budget.

I was just planning on making changes to other things we wanted to do to make up for the drywall cost. Then, the magic happened. I did a Facebook Live video to share a tour of the flip house. During that video, people were telling me to paint the paneling. The paneling is not real wood (except by the stairs and the bar) so I didn’t think you would paint it at all. Then, more and more people were telling me they have done it. We had nothing to lose. We had to give it a try. 

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Supplies Needed: The Easy Way To Paint Paneling:

HomeRight Heavy Duty Paint Sprayer

Cleaning Supplies (to wash the paneling first)

Primer & Paint

Painter’s Tape (to cover outlets)

Small Strainer (to strain the primer and paint as you fill the paint sprayer)

We rolled up all the carpet and had all the ceiling tiles removed because we are replacing them. We covered the outlets with painter’s tape and brought out our HomeRight Heavy Duty Paint Sprayer. Since there is paneling everywhere and we didn’t have to be “careful” about where the paint landed – spraying it was going to be the way to go. We washed all of the walls and bought many cans of primer. 

Here goes nothing!

We oiled the sprayer.

We strained the primer as it went into the bowl of the sprayer.

Then, we mixed the primer really well.

Finally, it was time to spray!

LOOK AT THE PANELING HOLDING THE PRIMER! 

I shared an Instagram Story of the spraying process.

It went on so well and the coverage was GREAT!

We couldn’t believe it and I actually did a happy dance right then and there. (I should have gotten an IG story of that.) 🙂 

When we were going back and forth about different ways to change the paneling in the basement, I said maybe we can do the faux ship lap like we did in our home. That was going to be cheaper than drywall, but a lot more work. When I saw the primer on the paneling, I told my husband it looks like vertical ship lap! HAHA! A new take on shiplap with less work and less cost! #winning

After we sprayed two coats of primer, we waited for it to dry. Then, we came back with a very light gray paint on the walls. We used the HomeRight Paintstick to roll on the paint.

I will never look at paneling in the same way. I would recommend to anyone who wants to change paneling in their home while saving money, to paint paneling. The family room in the flip house became a new space in one afternoon. It became a selling feature! 

Do you have paneling in your home that you want to get rid of? Paint it to save money and get a great look! 

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If you liked The Easy Way To Paint Paneling post, check out these other simple DIY projects:

How To Paint Tile The Easy Way

How To Paint A Bathtub Easily & Inexpensively!

Budget Bathroom Makeover