Paint knotty pine????

Question

My house is older and made with knotty pine for interior walls. I want to paint because of hardwood floors(and dark walls makes it feel like a cave), but many older people love the walls(because you can't find the stuff anymore) and want me to let them be.

Overall, how do you think it would affect the value of the home; painted vs. non painted????? (once painted, color could be changed, but tongue and groove pattern would make it impossilbe to return to original wood finish.)

Answer 1

You could sacrifice a couple of inches of floor space and just put up some lathe and dry wall over it if you are concerned about conserving the integrity of the paneling but as far as I am concerned pine is a very homely wood and doesn't need to be showcased.We have a wall of it in our basement and I find it depressing. I would think twice about painting over a beautifully grained wood like oak or walnut but pine is a workhorse wood not a decorative wood and people used to paint it whenever it was necessary to construct furniture with it.

Answer 2

Painting Knotty Pine

Answer 3

I have a home (100 years old) with the same type of walls.... REAL pine.

Most likely the walls were added on after the house was built. Knotty pine is not that expensive, actually it is cheap compared to oak and other types of wood.

Go ahead and paint it if you want. It is your house. My wife painted my kid's reoom blue and it looks amazingly great!

Answer 4

You don't say which walls and floors this is. If it is the basement, you might consider leaving the walls and putting a lighter carpet down, increasing the lighting and putting in some punchy accessories. People often like the cosy look in a rec room. If, however, it is the upstairs, definitely change it. People like living rooms etc. to be light, bright and modern. (unless you have a period home) As has been mentioned, you can prepare the walls and paint. Use a good primer, which will block stains, cover the knots, and adhere to any residual finish. You could also consider just doing one wall in the darkest area and see what effect that has. There's also the idea of draping fabric along one wall. That's temporary and would give you an idea of what difference it might make. Above all, it is your house. Unless you are moving shortly, do what would make you happy. It is your house.

Answer 5

the pine has probably been seal with urethane sealer or shellac for protection. this surface will need to be roughed up either by sanding or there is a product called liquid sandpaper than works well and is a lot easier. then it's a matter of priming and painting. make sure you prime first, the knots in the wood will soak up a lot of paint . the primer will seal the knot to prevent that. plus primer is cheaper than paint. As far as the value of the house, it depends on the house. but a dark house will not bring as much as a light or bright house on the average

Answer 6

For ease of re-sale, probably best to take it out and drywall and paint. That would appeal to the broadest range of prospective buyers. Personally, I like knotty pine-but I live in the mountains surrounded by pines-so it just follows....

Answer 7

Value wise .it would go way down in value!. But one should be happy with the way their home looks and if you don't like the pine, you could buy 4 x 8 ft panels"they are just like the wood paneling but there are a variety of different textures and colors. You just attach to the existing wall with small screws. then if you should change your mind or decide to sell your home in the future you would still have the pine wood still original! Or you might consider leaving the walls as they are and put down large area rugs to brighten the room or fully carpet. If you decide to carpet you should see if there is sometype of floor protector you could put down first to avoid damaging the hard wood floors! If you decide to paint and later change your mind.... a liquid paint stripper works great, you just brush it on let it set a few minutes then scrape it off with a plastic scrapper

Answer 8

Why don't you try this in 1 room and see if you like how it looks? I had kitchen cabinets in my 1950s ranch house that were some kind of wood, we weren't sure what kind when we bought it in 1987.

I used a bucket of Hot water and TPS (trisodium phosphate) and scrubbed them. Turned out they were knotty pine, they came out about 5 shades lighter. They were kinda pretty. I wiped them down with liquid gold and left them be.

If you do not like them then they are perfectly prepped to be painted.

http://www.savogran.com/Retail_Products/Cleaning_Products/cleaning_products.html

and a warning about using TSP
http://www.naturalhandyman.com/iip/infxtra/inftsp.shtm

another warning, liquid gold contains petroleum distillates, which I later found out gives me, and others migraines.

Answer 9

I think knotty pine is old looking....

prime, paint and enjoy

Answer 10

knotty pine is easy enough to get. don't care for it much myself. i doubt you're thinking of stripping and staining to a lighter color. therefore your only choice is to paint. you have to live there. i find most people would want to remodel so they can have things their own way so i doubt it would devalue the house. personally i would drywall over ora white type paneling. do what you can live with not what other people (who don't have to live there) want.