Remember the other day (another post) I was talking about how changing the color of our living spaces can help with our outlooks and our moods?

Well…I’ve been at it again.

To give you a little background – the house I live in is the same house I grew up in (as in from the time I was born until I moved out) – so its kinda old.  And dated.

And dark.

I’ve been (slowly) making changes to the interior in ways that won’t change it too much.  I guess you could say I’m sentimental.  The walls in this house have NEVER been painted.  EVER.  Every room in the house has paneling in it.  And I mean every room in the house.  The living room, all the bedrooms, the kitchen and even the bathrooms.  And its not paneling like you buy today but tongue and groove paneling – individual boards of various widths. Its a unique look and one you don’t see every day.

It was REALLY hard for me to decide to cover these walls.  I knew that once I put paint on the walls there would be no going back.  Well, no going back easily anyway.

But after I painted the first room, I was hooked.

But – it is a major undertaking! This isn’t one of those weekend jobs.

First, you have to prime everything.  These walls have varnish on them.  They’re slick.  And unless you plan to sand them, your only option is to prime them.  And because they’re varnished, you have to prime them with an oil based primer specifically for varnished surfaces.  (I used Zinsser’s COVER STAIN PRIMER because it ‘sticks to all surfaces without sanding, dries quickly, and you can use with any topcoat”).  And its works too.  But let me tell you – you need good ventilation!!  It smells like lighter fluid and the smell can linger for days. (If you don’t have varnished walls like I do, you can probably get by with the acrylic version – its not nearly as bad to deal with and it cleans up with soap and water – the primer I used had to be cleaned up with mineral spirits – that’s a major pain.  I still have primer under my fingernails!).  And since its individual boards of various widths, I had to use a 4-6″ roller because the walls aren’t even (some boards were a little higher than others) unlike regular walls and then there’s the gap area between each board that had to be ‘cut in’ with a brush in addition to the regular areas that have to be ‘cut in’.

But…once you’re finally done priming…then the real fun begins.  Painting with color!

And here’s a sneak peek of the color on one wall…

What do you think?

I’ll take a picture of the whole room tomorrow in the daylight…