Personally I would paint the drywall and the ceiling a good blue, stock the bookcase, and then see how I felt. Painting knotty pine and having it come out right is really a chore and hard to achieve.

Presuming you are getting rid of the storage and carpet,

Blue will bring out the orange tones in the wood, so I wouldn't choose blue paint. To me the accent wall doesn't look that bad. The half wall paneling on the other walls is not great. Does the pine fit with the style of the house, or is it just a relic from the '70's?

Pine is difficult to paint because of the knots. If you do paint it be sure to use an appropriate primer. I know my DH would take it all down, but then you have to repair the walls. If it was glued on instead of nailed that's even worse. If you decide to paint, I would paint all four walls the same color. I like the wall color you already have, but if you want to change it up you need to give us a better idea of what the floors and furniture look like before we can offer suggestions. You say you have pine floors but this room looks like it's carpeted. Is the carpet staying?

We are redoing the carpet and the couch will be a darker gray. The house was built the 80’s but has a few older touches.

I would remove the shelving. To me that’s what’s dating it.

I would vote for painting over it. But agree it will be hard to make it look right. The knots will probably show through…. So I’d say leave it be.

Remove the shelves, paint the pine white.

Do you like the knotty pine wall and the knotty pine wainscott? It's workable but you really shouldn't use gray in the room. Cool gray furniture and paint are generally not good choices for a room with warm finishes.

Can you post a photo with a wide view of the room so we can see the rest of the space?

Get rid of the shelves and the wainscotting. The wall covered in wood is fantastic! It may be from 1980's but *I* like it. But not with gray.

That is a freaky looking wall. Some knotty pine I can get with, but I see why you want to get rid of this look. I'd paint it and the walls white. Do what you can to prime the knots and know they will show a bit. That's fine.

Painting knotty pine, or any knotted wood is going to be a challenge. I had an entire room paneled in pickled pine. I left one wall, and the ceiling beams (which matched) and drywalled over the other walls. Yes you can dry wall right over the top of the paneling. My room turned out great. Good luck.

We might suggest removing the current shelves and the wainscotting, if possible, then look at painting the walls a light blue or white. We also think adding more lighting might help as well. Here is a recent design of ours with lots of wood:

Suncadia Mountain Retreat · More Info

Suncadia Mountain Retreat · More Info