How to paint wood panelling like a pro!

You've been busy with you're new carpentry skills and you're amazed with what you've achieved installing your wood panelling, AMAZING! No the question is how to paint wood panelling and get a pro finish that lasts?

We're going to take a look at the options because most people have two thoughts. 1, If i use wood paint is it going to match with colour and finish for the walls and 2, if I use wood wall paint is the finish going to last?

First steps for painting wood panelling

Before we get on to the top coats of paint, let us look at what is required to make sure we get the best process as there's a few things to do first. The first mistake people do is to caulk and fill un-primed wood.

Step 1, should be sanding. Sand down any lump, bumps or joins to make sure all is smooth. Get things as soon as you can or you will only need to repeat the next steps but, no filling nails etc yet!

Step 2, priming. Before you fill or caulk it's important to prime and bare mdf or would. Some kits come already primed. If they are white then you can skip this step. Otherwise look for a good quality primer like Zinsser Bin Aqua or Johnstone's Trade Joncryl Primer. You won't need much so get the smallest tin you can find.

Step 3, Now the wood is primer you can fill any nail holes and do and caulking. It can be better to over fill and any holes and sand them back. With the caulk, try and use as little as possible to get a nice small radius of caulk in the corners.

Step 4, Now you have all the nail holes fills sand everything smooth. It can be a good ideal to go over any patches or filler or sanding areas with another layer of primer to ensure a adhesion with top coats of paint.

How to paint wood panelling

Now the panelling is all smooth, prepped and ready for painting, the question still remains, how to paint? For this we use one of two options.

First, we will look at if your wood panelling is the same colour as the wall. For this you a durable matt emulsion. We always recommend a trade paint so something like Johnstones Trade Acrylic Durable Matt or Dulux Trade Diamond Matt. The durable paints offer much better protection to wear and tear. You can use this on the wall and the panelling, ensuring the finish matches exactly!

Now we can look if the panelling is a different colour to the wall. This is usually where the lower half of the wall is completely clad in wood. For this we recommend a wood paint as there doesn't need to be an exact match to the walls and the wood paint will be much more durable. For this we recommend Johnstones Trade Aqua Guard. This is great to work with, very durable and leave a great finish. It's only slightly shinier than wall paint. We usually opt for a satin finish but if you want it really matt then there is a matt finish available also.

Things to consider

One area where we would not recommend using wall paint (emulsion), would be to paint skirting boards. The paint just does not have enough durability. There is also a good chance the skirting boards have previously been painted in an oil based paint, which means using a water based emulsion paint won't "take" to the skirting boards and chip off easily.

If you're using a bare wood for beading which has knots in then you will need to use two coats of the primers we mentioned earlier. Otherwise after a few months you will see the knots showing through all of your hard work!

The key take away's for painting wood panelling is to use a good quality primer before you apply the top coats. Then ensure your wall paint is a durable matt emulsion.

If you're painting detailed beading then all you will need is the brush you've used for cutting in the walls. A 2 inch brush is ideal. If your wall panelling has a large flat face, then a 4 inch medium pile roller will help you achieve a perfect finish faster.