the wood is pretty, but can be painted if you decide to - use a good latex primer first and then paint.

edit - I am not in favor of painting pine that is in good condition, but it is your home and you live there, so do what you will enjoy.

To a guy with a hammer, everything looks like a nail.

Painting knotty pine is a sin. If someone wants a painted wall, they need to carefully harvest that valuable material, resell it, and put up boring old cheap drywall.

Regardless, any experienced professional painter knows the massive tannin bleedthrough error of priming pine with anything latex. You only do that once. Then you have learned NOT to do it again.

HI -- Don't keep it because it is so dated and with it all being angled it is ugly and makes the room look small . It is not precious wood anyway and has done it's time . Besides judging from your other posting this is all probably changing anyway and it should . As I said on your other posting , this room would be a better as a new kitchen . This old wood does not add value to the property and in fact is a fire hazard . The wood is old and the electrical probably needs to be checked and up dated . Lets move on ... it is not the 70's anymore people !!

I wouldn't paint(except for that pink band around the doors in case you hate it, since it is obviously already painted, and thus can be redone in any color)

it it's more than technical aspect you're looking into-for makeover suggestions (that can be various and many-not only walls make the room), I'd highly recommend cross posting in Home Decorating forum, and telling us a bit more about your vision for it, style preferences, etc

you'll get many suggestions or so I believe, and even the ones you don't like will give you better idea on what you do like:)

PS I think it's a pretty room:)

-edit- You can spot-prime knots with Bin primer (shellac), or you can kill brain cells and prime the whole thing with an oil based primer (like Cover Stain) indoors for tannin-free results.

The tannin already be sealed by a varnish (assuming the wood is sealed with some sort of clear coat)? In that case all you need to do is prime to ensure adhesion, and latex primer would work just fine.

Another option, instead of painting is to "wash" the wood with a translucent tinted/thinned primer. looks similar to pickling, but can tint it to any color. A "wash" can be very nice over wood. Using a thinned oil-based primer, tinted to your color, and washed very thinly so that the grain still shows through. Can be very subtle, and understated (but requires a ton of ventilation because its oil-based).

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I like the wood as is rather than painted. (I also dislike painted woodwork, etc. if you are going to paint it, why not just use cheap mdf?)

The OP has a room that is overwhelmingly wooden. I am not surprised she is considering ways to tone it down a little.

I have Golden oak everywhere in my house. Personally, I like it, but I understand why people sometimes want to minimize it's effect in their home.

Knotty Pine was sometimes over-used, just like Golden Oak. It has a slightly dated feeling (sometime good, sometime not so much), and I think it is forgivable if people want to downplay it, especially if it does't line up with their aesthetics.

*wood is a renewable resource.

well, as far as I understood-the OP is thinking to change the space for functioning as a family room or a bedroom

which means-most of wooden furniture leaves/can leave..lots of different textures come in-maybe upholstery, rugs, maybe metallics...art? plants? colors/patterns? industrial vibe? cottage vibe? can go several directions, and every one of them might turn out very cool

one can change the room if it irritates him to no end or doesn't go with the style of the house, or has nothing to do with a setting where a house stands .

or one can decide to work with it(if that room does make overall sense), to change just a bit, or to bring in other elements that will be great companions to that wood and will play it off, and balance or counterbalance it.

Hi there--

If you're exploring options to refresh this space, I'd recommend having your paneling removed versus simply painting over it. The diagonal install pattern would still be apparent under any paint job, and is a look very of its time. With paneling removed, you'll still have wood tones present with your stain-grade window and door casing and base, as well as highlighting your beautiful flooring. It would also give you a better blank canvas as you choose how to refocus this space for future use, too.

Making your current pine paneling available to a reclaimed wood center can give it new life in the hands of today's craftsmen and make your space feel lighter, more open, and more consistent from corner to corner. Cheers!

Wow. Thanks so much for all the input. I did find the diagonal wood dated (even if it's painted). It has been suggested to me that a quick fix would be gyprocking and lining or plastering. Don't know what disaster hides behind the wooden panel.

I'm actually quite surprised that the common consensus here is to leave the wooden panels alone. Is the 70s back in trend or perhaps leaving it as a feature with proper decoration is the way to go?

It would be less overwhelming with a large area rug. You really do have a lot of wood in there!

Take of a piece and see what's behind. You're likely going to have to drywall once you've popped off the wood anyway. You job isn't that big.

"Is the 70s back in trend or perhaps leaving it as a feature with proper decoration is the way to go?"

See, my personal perspective is that I wasn't born here and didn't live here while most of the folks here were. Which left me very free in how to feel towards this or that trend, since I went through neither of them. Now I'm already here and all, but I don't have specific associations about say pink tiles or avocado appliances or wood paneled wall or polished brass or any metal for that matter. So as I said I'm blissfully free from this "outdated" and "dated" feeling. I either love things, don't like them right away and never will, or slowly warm up towards them.

I noticed that what irritates me is probably fakeness. For example I love your room-really do, and if I lived couple hours from where I am now, Big Bear Lake or something, I'd love to have such a room. Here where I am, 15 min from the beach -that wood would look a tad strange, since it's artificial irrigation here..:) not a forest. So I might still like it (if it was a different wood because I believe they'd use a different wood not knotty pine in this area..) or I might think "why did they do that? it has no relationship to anything whatsover"

You know where you live, and whether it reads like an old fad to you that doesn' make sense, or something that works well with your house and your area.

And if it's a second one I'd definitely try to work with it, not against it.

(from what I read and see seventies are back:) makes sense as usually takes 40-50 years..folks get old, their things start hitting the market, some people get nostalgic since it's their childhood, others percieve it like novelty since weren't born yet...tweak it more as not to repeat completely, just be inspired by it..so on and so forth

if some new material appears on the market-matters a lot too. that alone can change many things..)

My housemate said it's a hipster thing to keep the wood as a feature wall. I've posted this in the home decoration forum as suggested. May give this timber a chance if decoration works out.

kagomel, we posted simultaneously..:)

would be interesting to read the answers in Home Decorating

We so did. I just realised most commentors are from the states. I'm in Australia. Have I posted in the wrong site? Not that it matters to be honest.

From what the pictures show, the lines between each panel look pretty deep. Even if you paint over by priming then painting you will still have the diagonal lines showing through. Other than removing the paneling, or putting up sheet rock to cover the wood the other option would be to fill in the diagonal lines with mud to make a smooth wall: see example here https://www.todayshomeowner.com/video/how-to-fill-grooves-in-paneling-before-painting/

Although the paneling looks to be in great shape, I can understand wanting to change the room to update and refresh it.

No, I'm sure you're fine posting here, kagomel.

I'm not from the States originally, and it's actually quite fascinating to learn how different countries have their own history of design trends, approach to things, etc, etc. To me it's one of the best part of it all, so I'm really glad you posted here and not somewhere else, giving me and others an opportunity to read it and think about.