Paint colors come from furnishings. Rugs, upholstery......or even some inspiration from art on a wall!

Paint isn't a first selection, it is made in conjunction with other elements in the space. You show none, and have no information provided.

Unsure? Paint it white, and live with it until your room is more "informed"

How do you want your home to feel? What does the dream space look like, feel like? Find some rooms you love, post them and return.

I would give serious thought to changing out that flooring before ever painting that butterfly pine. The flooring is what is throwing off the room in my opinion. Fake wood next to real wood is not a good look and that flooring appears to me to be a fake looking wood product.

I’m demo ing it. There’s real wood under.

A little darker brown then (wood dependent) and I think the pine will look really good.

We are moved in, but it’s been a mess since removing wallpaper, but I can show the furnished pictures today at some point. I can also show what I’m 99% sure of what flooring is underneath. I can start a paint project, but floors will be hard if I end up needing a pro to fix damaged wood at this time.

The first picture shows our laminate floating on real wood, it’s in all the closets and other random spaces they didn’t install the pre fab wood on. The rest is our common area! Not as clean as I’d like to show lol. I also typically have a rug in the living room. It needs cleaning and I’m not sure if I’ll be replacing or putting back there, but it’s a mix of dark and light blues with mustard and cream colors.

Would you consider pickling the pine walls instead of painting. Pickling would add color but would still allow some of the wood grain to show through. This would involve stripping the walls as I'm sure there is existing varnish or some other clear finish on them now. That would be intensive work but should be well worth the effort.

I would! Maybe I just need to try the technique first, like do a sample plank maybe? I think I’m just worried of making something tacky 🥵 but I guess the best way is trying it out. I was the main person that didn’t want to get rid of the wood and finally succumbed to painting it over, but I think I should test it out before giving up!

I wouldnt do anything to the wood, right now. It actually looks really good. I would uncover the floors and see just what you have. Chances are the floors underneath, will look good with the paneling. Live with it, until time, and budget allow you to do a bit of exploring, you can always paint it later, if that is what you decide to do. New house to you, lots of things, to do, and moving in besides, its always best to live with things, before you decide to change too much. Just do things, that are absolutely necessary, and give yourself time, to think, and also to see just how the house works for you, before you go and make changes, that are permanent.

I am in agreement with others that the knotty pine is nicer than the laminate flooring and that you should wait before painting.

You have a lot to do and you should take your time. The first 6 months to a year in a home are about moving in, figuring out what works, what doesn't work, what things are going to cost, and how your budget works with the added expenses of home ownership.

The flooring looks like they covered the hard woods with inexpensive laminate before selling and there was not much thought into what they picked. The flooring clashes with the warmth of the knotty pine.

Sadly, most of us do not have unlimited money and have to budget our renovations and pick and choose what we can afford to change.

Do some real soul searching before making any decisions.

There are no hard and fast rules that you have to follow.

Your main goal is to have a place where you can build wonderful memories for you and your family.

We all have different priorities and different amounts of money that we can dedicate to renovations and differing DIY skill sets.

I have seen homes where people want to paint over their knotty pine and I want to reach through the computer and slap them. It is a beautiful, rustic, mountain home with knotty pine everywhere and beautifully done. I don't feel that way about your knotty pine. It is paneling that was put up at some point because it was popular at the time.

I am also pretty sure the last owners covered the hardwood for a reason. If it was easily refinished they probably wouldn't have covered it. I could be wrong, but I'd put money on it not being able to simply uncovered and refinished without extensive repair work.

You may want to ask the previous owners before removing the floor. You already bought the home, so there isn't any reason why they wouldn't answer the question. Tell them you were considering taking up the floors and refinishing the hardwood underneath, but wanted to know if this is a good idea or if there is too much wear and tear on the original floors to have them refinished.

Think about the aesthetic you want in your home. It is okay to have LVT flooring. It is okay to have knotty pine paneling. The two just don't work well together.

Which one do you want to update or do you have money to update both?

Your going to have to research the costs and determine what you want to do for all of your options.

Flooring:

Keep what is installed

Remove and try to restore what is underneath, knowing it may not be able to be restored and may need to be replaced.

Remover and change to another flooring. (A different LVT, tile, wood, carpet)

You may want to do the entire house in LVT. What is in the bathrooms and kitchen?

You may not care if the bedrooms have different flooring than the main living area. You may want an LVT that more closely matches the color of the bedrooms or may want to refinish the wood in the bedrooms to match whatever LVT you pick for the main living area (if you choose to replace the LVT with LVT). Most homeowners can install LVT themselves. Wall to wall carpeting is relatively inexpensive and is still the top selling floor covering, even if every designer hates carpet. It is your home and your money - pick what you like and what works with your budget and lifestyle.

Personally I find wood flooring and wood paneling can be a bit much. Sometimes carpet is a better answer.

Knotty Pine paneling

Remove and replace/repair the drywall/plaster underneath.

Drywall over the paneling

Cover the paneling with paintable wall liner and then paint

Fill the lines and skim coat before painting.

Prep and paint leaving the lines.

Re Stain

Leave as is.

This match between hardwood and LVT is something I could live with.

Knotty pine with carpet

knotty pine painted before and after

Take your time, weigh all of your options and then move forward with a good plan in place.

As for the paint option, In my opinion, the color is way to dark for the main living areas of your home and too dark for most living spaces.

It is dramatic, but your home is simple. If you want warm and welcoming this is not the right answer.

For now I would probably just paint everything white, knowing that over the next couple of years you will be making final design decisions.

I wouldn't even pick an expensive paint for the walls, again, knowing that this is a temporary fix.

I would get a good paint for the trim and doors. You don't want to have to repaint those.

I don't know the best budget paint, but I might check out Lowes and Sherwin Williams and talk to the paint people there. SW bought out Valspar so I think you can get the same colors at both places. SW often has good sales.

A color like SW Alabaster will be a good base for the future. Use it on the walls, ceiling and trim.

Flat on the ceilings, eggshell on the walls and satin/semi gloss on the trim.

When you are ready to choose wall color you can paint the walls another color and not have to do the ceilings or trim.

Alabaster is a warm white. It is pretty white, not an off white. It will be perfect for the trim and ceiling as you move forward and shouldn't limit your wall color selection in the future with only a few exceptions - mostly other whites.

Thank you guys! I think I will leave the walls alone for now. I definitely want to take the flooring up. I think it’s 50/50: they just wanted to update at one point years ago (a bit warped and coming up in some areas) or there was lots of wear and tear.
I believe every room was wallpapered at some point. Three of the rooms were painted/updated and, like the picture shown, I believe the laminate was removed in one room as the most current update (forgot the quarter round after painting). Hopefully, it was taste and I can restore the flooring!
Someone mentioned the color I mentioned for the knotty pine wouldn’t look too well - I am going for a warm look and have always steered away from color, but I’m in no way the best designer and have no idea how to make my taste cohesive with a home lol. My first home purchase btw! We’ve been renting to own for about a year and will be closing shortly! I’m not against asking the original owners why the put down the flooring, but we’ll see if I can get in touch since it’s been a while.

Wallpaper removal is the only step we’ve taken until close!

I removed wallpaper from my current home that had been on the walls for 50 years and was put on plaster that had not been primed. I could wash the walls over and over and still have paste residue that had absorbed into the plaster. I used Zinsser Gardz to seal the walls before doing a traditional prime and paint. Any paste residual will come through as yellow stains if you don't seal it before painting.

Just remember you cannot paint over knotty pine without a primer sealer like KILZ or the knots will always bleed through

This is a huge step - congratulations on joining the ranks of a home owner.

I have helped a lot of people pick home colors, but have a different approach than many.

Trends change about every 10 -15 years. In my lifetime colors have come and gone from the flower power, psychedelic's of the 60s to the calm neutrals post 911 and the subsequent housing burst. From Fuchsia to Avocado Green, Laura Ashley pastel florals to black, red and chrome.

Right now 98 out of 100 people will tell you to paint your walls, ceiling and trim white, don't paint wood, get real wood floors, shaker cabinets and stone countertops. 5 Years ago the same people would have told you to paint everything gray and 10 years earlier would have told you to paint everything beige.

Instead of following trends I like to explore what makes you happy and what works for the way you live your life.

We all have favorite colors. I love purple and wine reds and teal, My sister was in my kitchen the other day while I was doing dishes and she said "can't tell you like purple" as she pointed out the purple trays, the purple handled spatula and the purple dishtowel. I responded with - and my reds - had a red dishcloth in my hand, and the silicone mats that go on the purple dinner trays are red and the drying mat I was setting my dishes on was red. My closet, my bedding, my shower curtains and my art seem to consistently have these same colors.

We buy colors that make us happy. I come from a big family and we like different colors and different styles. Susie loves mossy greens and accents them with burnt orange and copper and gold. Betty is conservative and wears mostly navy and tan with softer muted colors. Lisa is drawn to pastels . . . My home is furnished with simple, clean Mid Century Modern furnishings, Susie has an eclectic mix of Queen Anne and industrial furnishings, Betty has transitional furnishings and Lisa has country oak furnishings. The furnishings reflect our personalities. I am a data analyst, very introverted, get exhusted by people and hate busy anything. The simple clean lines of MCM furnishings reflect my need for organization and simplicity. Susie is an extrovert, high energy and loves the intricate carving. She can handle the imperfections of industrial and antique furnishings, where I go a bit crazy if things are scratched or dented. Her home makes me tired. Too busy.

Our homes are all beautiful, but very different. We all buy the things we love and our homes were painted and finished with colors that work well with the colors we love.

My purples and reds wouldn't look very good next to Susie's moss green walls. Susie's dark colors wouldn't look good with Betty's white walls and Betty's subdued cool colors would be too cool next to the warm oak and creams in Lisa's home.

Knowing what you love and who you are is the first step in determining your style and color palette.

Figuring it out now will help you not waste a bunch of money buying trendy things that you don't love and will get tired of in a year or two. Picking a style and staying with it will help you achieve a consistent look and feel. That seems to be the goal and from a design perspective it is what we should strive for.

On the other hand I have a friend who is a spectacular person. Her home is interesting. She never had a lot of money, but saved and decorated one room at a time over decades. Walking though her home is like traveling through time. One bedroom with her parents 1940s furniture, one with a black and chrome bedroom set and another with the 80s gold headboard and light wood furnishings. The 90s cherry dining room set and the oversized sectional in the living room are next to her new white kitchen with shaker cabinets and white granite countertops.

It is a home that would make many designers cringe, but her home has always been filled with love and laughter and joy. She has been there for me when my heart was broken and has made me laugh till tears were running down my cheeks. I have so many wonderful memories from spending time in her home and I don't think better styling would have made those memories better.

Keep things in perspective and do what will make you happy.

Aww thank you for that! I’ll probably do like your friend has. One room at a time as I really enjoy lots of different looks (rustic, contemporary, modern farmhouse, etc.) and will absolutely have to do some soul searching to get the feel how I’d like. My husband is REALLY involved as I believe home design has shown through as one of his passions even when renting. We both enjoy the feel of a room. I think we’re both overwhelmed with everything that can be done. We’ve agreed to leave the wood paneling alone until flooring is decided.

One of my friends has such a busy, but warm and cozy feel that I think has just accrued over time. I guess I’m worried about what people will think if it’s too much, but you’re right. It’s our house and if we like it, then that’s all that matters ♥️

How do you eat an elephant? One bite at at time!