How can I update the cheap paneling in my home?

I had cheap paneling on one wall in my den, was easy fix, tore it out, inserted insulation and sheetrocked.

Pat you can paint it, but make sure the grooves in the paneling get the paint also. You cold also put a wall up with thin lumber and paint that. Aloha!

We painted our paneling...ignored the grooves and after painting, you hardly notice them. Painted them white the first time and light yellow the next time.....never even notice the grooves. I was told you can fill the grooves with something and sand them smooth but we did not want to go to the trouble.

I've painted also using a creamy very light yellow satin paint. The lines do show even painted with the kind of paneling I have. But I like the look alot myself. It's kind of cottage-y and more interesting to me than a plain wall. If that style isn't to your taste, you'll need to fill in the lines and sand before painting. That's going to be an awful lot of work so you might ultimately be happier just biting the bullet and going with wall board. Another issue you COULD face if you go with the line fill-in method is that if you try to hang something like a picture, a curtain rod and you happen to hit a *now hidden* filled in area it could chip leaving kind of a mess. The way my paneling is done there is a line where panels meet. That's where a stud is and so you would be aiming there when hanging stuff that can't be hung with command products. Good luck!

Years ago we bought a house with huge rooms, 10 foot ceilings, and paneled walls. We wanted to use wallpaper so the grooves had to be dealt with. We applied spackle to fill in the grooves, using a putty knife. We didn't need to sand it. After the grooves were filled in we painted the walls with sizing, then applied the wallpaper. While the job was time consuming given the square footage, the results were beautiful. No more grooves.

I had 2 large rooms covered with cheap dark brown panelling. Didn't have the funds to replace with drywall so I got a great sealing primer. Put on 2 coats of primer and then an excellent interior paint. As others have said, once painted the lines pretty much disappear unless you want to see them. The paint held up great and saved a lot of money over replacing with drywall. 😎