Delete this now.

Live somewhere else? The house was meant for..... NOT YOU. I am certain there are other places : )

Or do ALL of all soft furnishings in pale tones......leave the house alone. No antlers needed. You may surprise yourself.

The first thing you do is to leave all of the wood be. You don’t take a historic home and ruin it. You have a responsibility to the house to maintain it in fairly original condition. You don’t own it. You are merely a steward to future generations.

You bought the wrong house if you want to immediately ruin it with a remuddle and drop the value by tens of thousands of dollars. Shame on you for even thinking of ruining that house.

Go buy a tickey tacky modern box that has no character and that you can paint every single surface if that’s what you want.

Not unkind to say don't ruin that which another may LOVE. It is three years, not a lifetime sentence. Decorate your way to loving it......and drywall isn't the "character"...... unless incredibly skillfully done by an architect respecting the bones of the house.Post photos of

"The ceilings are handcrafted wood, the floors are original pine ( wood
cut from the surrounding trees) the walls are hand hewn paneling".............please..

Cjohnston - actually the episodes of This Old House that I have been watching for 20 years do everything they can to preserve the original wood of the home. Often that means removing the wood and restoring it and putting it back, or stripping the floors, or sanding the wainscoting and applying varnish to it by historical wood specialists.

Of course kitchens and bathrooms are ripped out in those renovations, and layouts are reconfigured, but This Old House has never taken an 1800s stone cottage and ripped out or drywalled the original wood.

Jeanneprismon - you said in your TWO other posts that the home is from the 1800s, so a lot more than 100 years old you are saying in this post. It's a stone homestead from the 1800s so it's going to have wood. It is really a shame that you bought it when you don't like it. A crying shame--literally, it makes me want to cry how you want to manhandle it. Leave it alone though, if just for the sake of the money you will be saving.

As I said........IF you are going to attempt the re do........it requires tremendous skilled input . That is how the This Old House/ Veranda photos appear. Much skill involved ......it's not just slapped up drywall.

To ask opinion minus even photos is to get varied "shoot the fish in the dark barrel" type answers. A thousand words...need a few pictures, at the very least.

Sorry for your bad experience Jeanne, you should know that wood paneling ignites passions. One needs a sense of humor on these forums. I hope you stick around

there isnt a lot of hand holding here but there tends to be a lot of good advice. whether to dismantle what you own or live with what you own is strictly a personal decision. we're all here, giving personal decisions.

rugs on the floor, large art on the walls. based on your desires, and lack of pics for more specific suggestions, thats all i got.

(i live in an 1870 house. it still has all of its horsehair plaster and lath. someone before me took a paintbrush to the woodwork, so i didnt have to be angsty over whether i should do it or not.)

Call in an electrician and add additional lighting. With minimal windows, even if you painted every single surface white, the rooms would still be dark. Fix the actual issue, which is the lack of light. More light is always the solution. Even if it involves an electrical upgrade to do it.

Agreeing with others that we need some pics please.

You are getting mad at the responses because we cannot read your mind, nor have the ability to conjure up what your house must look like. That we can't do that appears to frustrate and dismay you. Let's put the shoe on the other foot. Someone comes to YOU and gives you a bare bones description of an 1800s home, and says she's going to be living in it for just "a few years", she wants to cover the wood, and have the home have less character, and provides no other information. Please tell us the detailed answers and advice you'd give that person that you are expecting from us.

It's only after multiple posts that you reveal it's a family home handed down from generations. That you want to muddle because you will be living there for "a few years".

Add lamps if it's dark.

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