Before you prime
Maybe this paragraph is out of sequence, but I need to touch on the point of spot testing. Because you will have a colossal mess if your adhesion is poor. I want to address the issue of testing -before you prime, to be sure your surface preparation and priming are adequate before doing the whole room.
Spot test the adhesion - to be safe
Once the room is primed - it’s primed. You can’t put the genie back in the bottle, and you can’t get poorly adhering primer to stick once it is down - you’re stuck (or “un-stuck” - pun intended).
If you failed on any spots, you will need to clean the paneling better. Re-clean and re-test before proceeding.
Painting
Use a standard ½” roller nap, unless you have the rustic, rough sawn paneling. Flat, satin or semi-gloss is all good, depending on your preference and the use of the room. I do satin paint most of the time. You won’t need a heavy nap to get into the grooves a ½” should do the job. See Paint Roller Covers
Colors
You can paint the paneling light or dark. Many want to lighten the room from a dark wood stained paneling so they opt to paint with a light color. If you are going to use a deep tone, your primer should be tinted to a gray to help with the paint coverage. See Painting with Deep Tone Paints. Half walls of paneling (wainscot) look good in deep colors, or in the trim enamel. You can do a faux finish on the paneling too if you’d like.
How I would do it - (but I wouldn’t do it)
Though I’ve not had to fill the grooves on any job, the way I would go about it, is to fill them after the total prime coat, using spackle. I would use an interior / exterior spackle intended for wood (as well as drywall). The lightweight spackles are better for this than the old spackles. Two thin coats should fill the grooves. Sand smooth (see Dustless Sanding), vacuum the dust off the walls. Then you must reprime the entire paneling. I would use the oil based primer - again. Note: You probably should tape (with fiberglass mesh tape) the butt joints where the pieces of paneling sheets meet together, these joints will have a higher chance of re-cracking if you don’t tape them.
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I like to do is a few adhesion spot tests on the wall with my primer prior to priming the room in total, to be sure I have done my cleaning preparation well, and to be sure the primer is going to stick.
Spot testing
Prime a few 4” x 4” spots on all four walls at different locations, this will give you a more accurate test result that just doing one spot. Let the primer dry for a day or two and then test the spots using the cross cut method. See Cross Cut Adhesion Testing. If the spots all pass, you are ready to move on to priming the walls in total.
Please read lead paint warning if your house was built before 1978,
Caulking
Before painting, you will need to caulk gaps in the paneling which after priming, are suddenly revealed. Gaps between the door and window casings and the paneling, gaps between the baseboard and the paneling, gaps in the inside corners, and gaps where the 4’ x 8’ paneling sheets butt up to each other. Don’t caulk the grooves in the paneling. See below.
What to do with the lines / grooves?
Leave them. That is my advice. Painted paneling has a finished look that is a change from all smooth drywall - walls. I have never filled the grooves on a painted paneling job. It is a lot of extra work, with some risk of re-cracking, or the spackle coming out of the groove, so why bother with them? They add to “the look”.
How to Paint Paneling - Part 2
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