Painting the Knotty Pine

We tend to move around a bit. 3 years is our record living in one house. So when we looked at our current house and were using words like "potential" and "eventually" to describe rooms and projects. I was doubtful that this was the right home for us. I mean, it sounded like we were staying put for a while with a project list that long... 

Toward the top of the project list was the issue of the paneling. Knotty pine paneling, well, EVERYWHERE! The kitchen, dining room and bedroom all had it. Even walls that had been plaster in 1955 managed to acquire paneling. Throughout the life of the house, previous owners had covered up more and more walls with different types of paneling to the point where almost every wall was covered. It felt like a bit much for the house. After all, it is a basic ranch style house in the suburbs, not a log cabin on a mountain somewhere. (Please, excuse the picture quality, I had no clue I would one day decide to use these for more than my own documentation...) It is a great house, but the paneling needed to go!

Before I go any further, I will add this disclaimer. I am fully aware of how "warm" and "cozy" many people think knotty pine is. I acknowledge that many people will think it is a tragedy that I would harm the original paneling. But I kept coming back to the same things.

1. It is my house and I have to live in it. 
2. There is a lack of natural light in the room that made it very dark.
3. When you looked closely, there were all kinds of holes in the wood, and even writing on a couple of walls.
4. It is my house and I have to eat in that room, 3 times a day, every day....

I had researched when dealing with our knotty pine kitchen. I knew the stories: The knots will bleed through the paint, you will never get that wood color back, it takes so much work...

But I also knew I had painted our kitchen cabinets a year earlier (that is a whole different post) and I did not regret it at all. So one day while Ham was destroying the playroom, and Cheese was at school, finishing up kindergarten for the year, I looked around and decided I could not live in knotty pine anymore. Not for a single minute longer, much less a day or two. By the time my husband came home from work, he was greeted by ladders, drop clothes and wood filler everywhere. Great human that he is, all he could say was "Oh, so we are painting the dining room?" And the rest is history...

Here is the process for painting the knotty pine paneling. 

1. Prep the area. Tape, lay drop clothes, removes fixtures and covers that might be in the way. Sometimes I find it helpful to block the doorway with furniture to remind Ham and Cheese to stay out of the room I am working in. (It helps for about 5 minutes)

2. Find a lot of wood filler and a putty knife. Moving inch by inch, panel by panel, fill every hole, every knot, and every other imperfection. This is tedious, but makes a huge difference, trust me! Let it dry, then sand the entire surface until it is smooth. (It is important to let the wood filler dry all the way, otherwise it will gunk up your sandpaper.)

3. Repair broken and missing moldings (thanks honey!)

4. At this point, think about using a shop vac to clean up the dust from all that sanding. Sanding dust is super fine, so I can't recommend  your regular vacuum. Getting rid of that dust will help when it is time to paint.

5. Wash the entire surface with a light TSP solution, then rinse with clean water. This helps degloss any finish that may be left after sanding. Plus it creates a nice clean surface for paint to adhere to.

6. Next, prime each and every knot with an oil based primer. This is a key step in locking in the stain and sap that can come through paint on knotty pine. Kilz Original stain-blocker works wonders. (Since I am lazy about cleaning up oil based paints, I used a disposable foam brush for this step, and just tossed it when I finished.)

7. I wish I had a picture of this next step, but alas I don't. However, this is the step that  produces professional results. Caulk! And lots of it... think "contractor pack" from a home improvement store. I have real, tongue-and-groove planks on my walls and ceiling (I know, I know, it is a crying shame I painted it...). As a result of this, I had tiny spaces between the boards. Not noticeable at all when they are simply stained, but they will show up like black lines once you paint it, unless you caulk. 

Get out the caulk gun and fill in all the "lines" down the walls. Working slowly and patiently on this helps a lot. Apply the caulk in a small section, smooth it with either a finger or a damp rag and then move on. Keep a bucket and wet rag on hand during this step, since caulk seems to get everywhere.

8. Now the fun begins! Time for the  priming and painting. A latex based primer (again, loving Kilz)  cleans up easily and goes on with little hassle. Using a brush and roller, work in sections. First brush primer in the cracks, then roll on the primer on the flat surfaces. 

Once I finished priming, I looked around and saw a yellow "glow" coming thought the primer. Since primer is cheaper than paint and meant to block stains,  I applied another coat. 

9. Paint in small sections the same way the primer was done. I used a semi-gloss latex paint on the walls and ceiling. I was hoping it would look like wainscoting, so I wanted the shine to it. (Plus, my boys can be a little, um, gross... so I wanted them to wipe down easily.) I applied 2 coats of paint to make sure the coverage was nice and even....

The plan was to keep the mantel and the beams in the wood color and only paint the walls and the ceiling. But plans change all the time around here.... So I went back to Step 1 and got rid of all of the knotty pine!

This long wall could use a picture or two...

Finally, I stood back, looked at my bright room and clean looking walls. I can say that my only regret with this project was waiting over a year to do it!

PLUS....This project had an unexpected bonus! Caulking up all those "lines" actually helped lower our energy bill. 
Our house was built in the 1950's and the paneling was literally put up on the studs. Our electrician happened to come do some work and go into our attic space right as I started this project. He commented on how he could see the light coming through the ceiling in between the boards. By caulking all those cracks up, we are losing a lot less of our Air Conditioning and Heating through the walls and ceiling! One more reason I don't regret painting our knotty pine paneling, not even a little!