Many of the bonding primers do not require that you sand down to the wood. Zinsser has many good primers and you might want the Zinsser BIN in this case, though I have successfully used the Zinsser 123 over my dark stained pine trim in my home.

I like wood, but beadboard seems to lend itself to being painted. I have painted beadboard in several places in my home and love it.

If you look at Nantucket homes for sale on Zillow, you will see lots of white beadboard.

Maxwell so you found solid wood under your paneling? please do post some pics. it certainly can be painted if that's what you decide, but yes sand it down well to remove the poly, or at least scuff it very well so the primer has something to bite into. If it's clear pine or fir and you're going for a rustic look it may be worth refinishing... are you planning to sell soon, next 5 or 10 years? if not, go with what YOU like and worry about resale later.

Beadboard is cottage and the cottage look, with lots of whites and pale blues and greens is very popular. Once you've painted it a glossy white, it will brighten up your space.

Pine needs a shellac based primer to seal knot holes and then if you use a water based primer you can save the stink and go water based paint.

"Judging by the orange color it could be pine."

I see. It's good to have at least semi-confirmation on this from someone else.

You will have to sand down the wood. Apply a good primer, look for a primer that seals knot in the wood, two coats. Then paint. With this paneling you have to be careful of "bleed through" from the knots in the wood.

Thank you, this helps a lot. As far as I know: sand, oil-based primer, paint. Thank you for the addition of "bleed through" issue concerning the knots though. That is new information for me.

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"Many of the bonding primers do not require that you sand down to the wood. Zinsser has many good primers"

I didn't know this, especially atop of stain. I will check those out. It would save me some well-needed time.

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"Maxwell so you found solid wood under your paneling? please do post some pics."

No, I wish haha. That was/is my Den, and I haven't looked to see what's under there yet. This is my Great Room, a completely different area. I have a ton of rooms to do and am merely creating a brief overview of what will need to be done in each one.

"yes sand it down well to remove the poly"

Ah ok, so this is likely polyutherane and not stain itself... I see.

"are you planning to sell soon, next 5 or 10 years?"

Yes, I will be reselling within 5 years. If I were going to stay here I would probably stain the walls instead of paint them. I don't mainly like the idea of painting wood, any wood.

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"Pine needs a shellac based primer to seal knot holes"

Hmmm, ok........ I thought I would be using an oil-based primer. I'm not even familiar with "shellac", though I've heard the word before. More research to do here haha.

Also, this doesn't have very many knot holes at all, so it's mainly not that much of an issue............ I hope.