What to do with a dark panel?

No sanding required. I painted the interior of my parents mobile home years ago. We put a coat of Kilz on and then painted. Came out beautiful. That was 20yrs ago. You can probably just use a paint/primer combo now. Post the before and after pics!!

We painted white over dark paneling 25 years ago and it still looks great

No sanding; no Kilz; just a wipe down with dawn and water; rinse with

clear water;

Beautiful. and so bright ./

recently painted several paneled room in one of our mobile home rentals.

first step was to clean the paneling, then applied 2 coats of oil-based primer (Kiltz) to provide an excellent bonding agent then applied 2 top coats of a light beige to lighten the dark paneling up, use a brush to get into all those grooves.

the results is gorgeous...light and airy rooms feel larger instead of small!

I painted my rec room paneling and I love it! Use a primer definitely and then as many coats of paint as necessary. I used a tiny artist brush to get into all of the grooves. Take your time because the paint will show through until it's completely covered. I painted the paneling and the walls white and it's fresh and clean now. It's my workout room and I enjoy working out more because it's like a brand new room. Would definitely do it all over again. I get lots of compliments on it too :)

If it is real wood, you can install wallpaper on the top and it will make the grooves disappear. You could put a chair rail and just paper the top.

Scrub it with scotch Brite pad and white vinegar then as said before a good coat of kiltz "use the kind that has no smell trust me" then paint any color you want

I inherited a number of walls with dark paneling.... ughh. Painted some with Chalk paint (from Walmart $5.99) and another with "Cabinet" paint from Lowes $49.00. Sealed the chalk paint with an acrylic sealer. Both look good, but I prefer the Chalk paint, because it's not as shiny as the enamel cabinet paint. Neither required sanding and/or priming. Good Luck.

We wallpapered over older panel we didn't like. Tested an area to decide if we needed to fill in the areas where they join or there are other indentations, and the way the paper dries did not show any of that so we wallpapered the whole area (entry to house) and no one could tell there was panel under the wallpaper.

If you don't want to wallpaper over the paneling, and would rather paint it but not have the grooves, they can be filled in and painted, then you don't even know there is paneling there. My brother and sister-in-law did the fill-in and it looks great!

did mine in light .. light gray .. works with any color schemes

You can fill in seams and sand it and prime it so that when you paint it, it doesn't look like paneling. But I don't mind the seams I think that a nice light color would be great to make room larger. Be careful when cleaning that you work in small sections or have someone behind you to dry it you don't know the quality and you don't want waring or bowing of it. If it's wood I would sand it and stain it instead.

Our den was high grade paneling but very dark. We painted over with Valspar eggshell type paint. Silver gray and the lines just make it look even better. Up to personal taste.

We cleaned ours with a strong ammonia water mix & it "stripped" much of the color off, making it lighter but more appealing.

We had a whole house with paneling and didn't like it so we used Kilz and then painted the paneling and loved it. We painted the ceiling a soft white and the walls in a more creamy white and it was very calming. This we did in the livingroom, hall, kitchen and the quest room. Our bedroom we did with a little more color. The trim we did in the white that we use d on the ceiling.

Grab white or tan paint and paint a design on it.

Yes, you can definitely paint it!

If too dark for your taste, of course you can paint, be sure to prep it properly so the paint will stick. Sounds like a nice project to customize your room.