What can I do to refresh the wood walls in living room?

Kim Manning
by Kim Manning

My house is lots of wood. The walls are fresh pine and have been polyurathaned many times. What can I do to clean and refresh this wood?

  5 answers
  • Homeroad Homeroad on Mar 05, 2019

    Wood paneling can be lightened and brightened with a coat of primer and paint.


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    • Homeroad Homeroad on Mar 07, 2019

      The wood is great! I would use a primer to keep the paint from soaking in and then a white paint to brighten the whole room :)

  • Deborah Deborah on Mar 05, 2019

    Clean with murphy's oil. Then lightly sand with a fine sandpaper and add a new coat of polyurethane.

  • Leah Leah on Mar 05, 2019

    KrudKutter original concentrate cleans well. I used it on my kitchen cabinets. I then used furniture restore. They look like new. I also did it to my hard rock maple furniture. It will take off any grease or polish you have used on them. Grease from the kitchen floats everywhere. Follow instuctions to adding water to bottle. Spray on, let set, wipe off. No scrubbing.

  • Debbs Debbs on Mar 05, 2019

    I use "Old Craftsmen's Lemon Oil and Beeswax" wood polish. It does a remarkable job in cleaning, moisturizing and sealing wood. We have huge 16 foot windows that allow the sun to bake our wood furniture. It began to split and dry out it was so bad....This miracle product saved the day. Thick smear all over, the wood drank it in, I reapplied, it drank it in more slowly, I reapplied again, it drank it in even more slowly. When it would no longer take the oil in, I just buffed it down with microfiber cloth and now I only need to do weekly maintenance dusting and do an oil treatment ever month or two depending on the season. There is another product similar but I have not used it...Williamsville Wax. Same ingredients type product. Both available on my Amazon Prime for under $10 a bottle. The bees wax is what seals it so well after it absorbs all that moisture. Maybe good old fashioned Johnson and johnson paste wax is more budget friendly for en masse treatment or to avoid solvents and chemicals, you could make your own wood wax with bees wax and oils...there is a lot of natural recipes out there just google it.


    For your wood paneling, I would begin with a really good elbow grease cleaning with vinegar and warm water. Distilled white vinegar is similar pH as common wood species like pine and oak. It is inexpensive, natural and readily available in gallon jugs. Easy first pass, big chunks cleaning method (devised by this lazy person) buy a new mop head for your butterfly floor mop and wash the walls that way for the first couple passes until the water almost does not get dirty anymore, then graduate to the step ladder, towel and hand work for final detail cleaning. Upside is the mop will find any little nails you miss pulling out so you don't injure your hands badly. Other plus...the vinegar covers up the off odor of the wood when it gets wet - for me I put the smell of wet wood in the same category as wet dog - bleeeche!


    After a good cleaning, you may be able to determine if a lemon oil/beeswax treatment will do or if a sanding refinish is needed to fully restore. We have a log vacation home and there is pine bead board that is 30 years old in the interior of bathrooms. The finish has discolored but I refuse to take on the sanding/refinish of it, just keeping it clean and conditioned for the time being.


    But you should try the oil/wax product...if for nothing else than to use on furniture - it is incredible stuff.