Hello! Yes, you do need some help! However, I would suggest doing one room at a time, especially with kids! Look at each room individually, it's function, what can be saved or reused and then decide on a budget. Look for ideas in magazines and on 'Houzz' and then have fun with it! Visit your local thrift shops, there are plenty of bargains to be found and keep within the character of the home. It looks like a charming house with LOTS of potential!

Lulu, Chic has great points/ideas...I was in a design challenge once where each design team could only source furnishings from the Salvation Army--all the rooms were fantastic! We did all have 6 weeks to find the objects, so patience is important. If you want to go really simple: paint it all white and let the textures show plus have drama in the dark beams...Modern Tudor maybe? Abstract art could bring in pops of color or International Chic might dictate all items white, brown, tan, black...have fun!

I have remodeled that type of house. First, strip out the paneling. Go for a wonderful shade of off-white for all of your rooms. Put in hardwood floors if you don't have them. Check to see if any windows need to be replaced. Then worry about your decor. You can save a lot of money by haveing all your demolition done at once, all your painting done at once(sprayed on), all your flooring done at once. Good luck!

Your home is why paint comes in 5 gallon buckets! I would start by painting all the paneling and molding. Then step back, you should have a better idea for where to go from there.

I agree to remove the paneling and paint the whole house "Swiss Coffee" for now...basically an off-white. Then, take one room at a time and carefully make your choices so you will love every room.

I am right now needing to get rid of 1969 panneling! I am caulking the seams and covering with "paintable" wallpaper. The wallpaper I'm useing is from Lowes and is available in a stucco, battenburg or plain finish. One warning, it's prepasted but use wallpaper paste also. With just the prepasted it usually slides off the wall. I used it on a Yacht once and had it put up with flooring paste because of the humidity. Cheers, Susan

I am doing a row house reno right now where the paneling in the basement will stay and be painted over. But I don't like that look for the upstairs of a '70's house.

Sometimes paneling looks great painted, sort of a whitewashed beachy look with texture almost like striping. If it is glued on you will need to do wall repair, if nailed on just filling nail holes. Recommend you choose the one room most frustrating to you and start there. Paint is cheap and elbow grease is free! Do you have wood or concrete floors?

We will be putting in hard wood floors once we paint the paneling.. thank you all so much for your comments and input! I will post pics of the remodel as we go;)

Painting the paneling; In my experience of painting many different paneled walls in different homes, and there is a chemical explanation for this not important unless you are a geek and must know, use a latex primer-sealer stain blocker and spot paint with an oil primer stain-blocker over any bleed-throughs such as water stains or tannin bleeds. This goes for redwood paneling too. The latex being alcohol based, the bit of initial odor will dissipate quickly. If you damage drywall when removing existing old wallpaper, this can be repaired easily. Use a sharp utility knife to cut away all loose edges of the damaged wallboard where it ripped out exposing the gypsum. Spot prime with oil the spots where that paper peeled and gypsum was exposed. After it dries sand it gently with maybe a 220 grit until fairly smooth then apply a thin skimcoat of drywall plaster. Do this skim coat application until you make the wall fairly smooth, let dry in-between of course. Takes time but if there are many small spots scattered about this way you don't have to replace a large section of drywall or cut out large patches of drywall unless you feel like that's best for your situation. Also, commercial wallpaper remover is fairly inexpensive and aids in prepping the wall for primer and paint. Using any soaps, especially commercial petroleum-based soaps or fabric softeners which contain plasticizers (?) will need to be washed off with TSP or tsp substitute, should prep all these old walls with TSP anyway before primer but using the product specifically made to remove wall paper is not expensive and won't leave soap residue that can compromise your paint job. Nice house, will look beautiful when you're done!

We've ( and by we I mean my husband :) ) have painted a lot of paneling. He used KILZ primer sealer first and then latex paint 2 coats. There is also a method we used for wallpapering over paneling. You use a liner paper hung horizontally over the paneling and then you apply the wallpaper vertically as usual.
In one bedroom, we painted the paneling 3/4 of the way up, added a chair rail and decorative ledge ( like a plate rail) and wallpapered the top 1/4 above the plate rail. This in a beach house we rent out and it has held up very well for almost 10 years. We did apply another coat of wall paint on the lower portion a couple years ago, just to freshen it up.

I think that is a lot of effort and expense for something that may turn out looking pretty bad after all is done. I bought a 1963 house in 1966. Waited until 1986 to rip out the paneling. Wondered why I had waited so long, but it was exceptionally pretty paneling.

I would suggest that you paint all the trim. The dark stain on that type of wood is very dated. Painted trim will brighten up the whole house. If you need a quick, easy fix then paint the paneling. Otherwise, just go ahead and have it dry-walled. You will be able to add insulation, or beef it up, and adjust electrical if wanted. I think an off white paint color thru out is a good choice. If you paint accent walls it tends to look choppy. Start with uniform paint color and then decide if you need any texture or changes of color.
If there is any texture on the ceiling then I would suggest having it stripped. It only require spraying it lightly with water and using a long handled scraper to scrape it off - being careful not to gouge the ceiling and keeping it a smooth as possible.
Pull up the carpet and hopefully you will find hardwood! If not, there are plenty of engineered wood floorings to choose from that are easy to install if you have a little patience and know-how. Keep the flooring light.
Dark wood is out and will look dated in a couple of years when the bulk of the population catches on. that goes for furniture too!
I think the overall advice is to not stray too far from the architecture of the house meaning that it is built in the 70's with that style so don't try to go for vastly different styles such as Victorian or Gothic or anything with lots of fussiness or intricate detailing.
Good luck!

Would like to add - you seem to have some exposed bricks. You might not want to have so many different textures in a small house.

We have done lots of work like that. I'm not sure what state you are in, and the rules may differ in your state compared to NC where we are, but be aware of the EPA's new lead-based paint rules. http://www.epa.gov/lead/pubs/renovation.htm

You might want to check under the paneling. You might get lucky and have drywall. A lot of people long ago actually "liked" that paneling and put it over drywall. If so, it will improve your property value to get rid of it. The holes in drywall can be easily patched.

To improve the value of your house try to rip it out and drywall if you can either way.

If you have pets, hardwoods get scratched by the way.

Whatever I said, I was assuming you had drywall under the paneling. So, you wnt to find that out right away by removeing a test patch. If you don't have drywall under te paneling, so much the more reason to get the paneling off now and drywall it. By painting over a bad situation, you are adding insult to injury.

I just found a GREAT way to update bathrooms check out MiracleMethod (it is a franchise, so they probably have one in your area) you can google it to see their before & after pictures. I was amazed at what they can do to old tile & tubs. I'm having them re-do a 1948 bath and also a newer formica countertop in the same 1948 house. The bath has 3 surround walls, standard size and it's only $1,500 which I thought was great, counters only $600. I was skeptical until I visited the showroom, it is really a nice finish. I was ready to start tearing out & start over, so I'm really glad I found this. Good luck!

The best thing I did when buying a 70's tudor was painting the walnut trim and doors white (BM Bavarian cream). HUGE difference!
Get rid of the wall paper and paint with warm neutrals. Unfortunately we do not have a blooming money tree in our back yard, so we usually do one big project a year. Last year we refaced our black and red lava rock fireplace with brick veneer and added build-in's and a hidden panel for the flat screen wires. At the moment we are working on the upstairs bath. BTW, if you need a little cosmetic lift with diving into a huge project, I would just paint the paneling for now. We painted ours in our family room and it looks great.

We lived in a home completely covered in dated brown paneling years ago. We painted all of it a warm white. We also painted the trim, kitchen cabinets, and bathroom cabinets. It made a huge difference! Everyone who saw it thought it looked great.It's a rental now and we have yet to repaint.
Love Lee C's advice as well.

our 1st home was in similar style/condition. Here's a huge warning/red flag: you never know what's behind that paneling! In our case that paneling covered holes in the drywall.

We opted for paint. We used a soft creamy color to obliterate all of the brown-ness. & It worked! We ended up with a fresh, light-filled home. This method then allowed us the freedom to attack each room individually, allowing for planning & careful thought of how each room functioned.

Good Luck!

Best advice from anyone here is to use stain blocker before you paint......It is worth the extra effort or your paneling will be bleeding through in a year or two.

first pic: retile floor beige ceramic tile or white and paint the walls beige. paint the cabinets white

just paint the walls white

paint the paneling white and take down the wallpaper and paint it beige

change the lights and paint desk white

Hi luluoneal, marie here.
Wow - lots of advice. Some good, some confusing.
I highly recommend with such a large project that you hire someone local to get you a "Master Design Scheme" like the mood board attached, which shows one room in your home, then specifying all the materials you can use to create continuity and flow with your remodelling.
Very important with having a busy young family that you watch those renovation dollars and stick with your budget. Good luck with your project - I'm here to help if I can, but really, get that master design scheme done!

Hi Lulu, I like Marie's advice above. Make a plan, focus on one room at a time and start with the things that are necessary for you to live in the home. Do you need the 2nd bathroom right now for the kids? If so, consider the advice above of Sandy Ray and make it work for you now. Paint is inexpensive but is most cost effective for a big change now. I would love to see current photos to see what you have done so far.

I would not remove the paneling. We moved into an older home with brown paneled walls and I had them painted off white and loved the way they turned out. The rooms became bright and it made them feel larger. The living room had the vaulted ceiling like yours and we painted that as well and would recommend doing that as well. Ripping out the paneling would be a huge job and a big mess, usually they are glued as well as nailed or stapled. You always have that option down the road but I think you are looking for solutions that won't break the budget and are not so time consuming especially since you have little ones to think about.

I forgot to mention there are paints that have a primer added so you don't need to prime before painting which saves a lot of time and money.