It took us a while to decide whether we should keep the the old wood paneled walls as is in the living room or transform this space into a completely new look. The wood paneled walls "absorbed" most of the natural light there was in this room and that made the room very dark. After much research and consideration we decided to bring a painter in to paint the walls in this room into white. Ales had his hands full working to finish the kitchen at that time so bringing in help here was our best option.

The walls including wood panels, trim boxes, and shelving area were sanded, cleaned, and caulked. As mentioned in the kitchen renovation post, it is extremely important to prepare wood paneled walls properly prior to painting, otherwise you will end up with a mess that can't be fixed easily. We went with Durapoxy paint base color white (the base color that comes in the can without mixing), in eggshell finish.

Ales later on painted the ceiling and ceiling trims to match with the walls, only leaving the piers untouched in their original finish to give a nice contrast to the white space.

The fun part about this project is that we made two 8ft console tables ourselves from pine wood and galvanized industrial pipes. We did not want any of the wall arts or decors to hang on the walls that could damage the wood panels. Tall and long console tables placed along the walls help us place decors against the walls without damaging them.

We also updated our very old plain white coffee table with new table top made of pine wood with a layer of clear/natural stain finish.

We had a lot of fun decorating this space with little decors, picture pallet frame, inspirational poster, Aztec pillow cases, and indoor plants.

Enjoy the pictures of the entire process below!