What can you do with wood paneling?
 

Ok so I have some wood paneling that the previous owner of my house put up in the basement to turn into two rooms. The wall looks a bit rough so I'm wondering if it would be better/easier to put wallpaper over it or attempt to paint over it.

FYI: there are "grooves" in the paneling and I'm assuming I should fill these in first...?

Should be able to mud and sand over it first with drywall mud
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Wallpaper that shizz man
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i agree with wallpaper.
i had a similar problem and decided to throw some drywall on top. costs more though

Mud, sand, drywall, mud for spaces/cracks, sand, paint

If your going to put in the effort to drywall it, just take the panelling down and go straight into the studs, it's not much more effort. Personally I'd paint it though, you'll just need to tackle the grooves with a brush before rolling.

Mud and sanding would be a horror show.. Best is remove and start again.. cheapest would be paint.

Lol if he were to remove the paneling and replace it with drywall he would have to caulk the top n bottom spaces, mud the imperfections, and sand for a good solid finish. If u wana do it the cheap way you should still mud the grooves, sand the entire wall for a smooth surface, stain if necessary then paint 2 coats. Anything else would come out cheap looking or probably peel eventually if u use wallpaper
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lol, caulk the top and bottom.. hehe its a bathtub dude.

Mudding over top of that material would be huge nightmare. Instead of having a few lines to mud where new drywall meets you'll have ten times more places to fill sand and mud.

Cheapest is to paint, best is to replace the drywall completely.

Please do not start filling in those grooves. The amount of dust you are going to create when you sand the entire wall is going to be insane!

Paint it for cheaps and call it a day.

Take it all off. Then drywall that is the only way it should be done. Do it right the 1st time, cause chances is if you wee to paint itll look odd to you after couple of months then you'll want to drywall it anyways.
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QFT

I agree with above posters, rip it down and drywall. If you don't want to rip it down just paint over it, mudding the wood is nuts IMO not to mention the joints will probably crack. You could even drywall with flexboard (1/4") drywall if you wanted to go over top of the panel which would be really easy to work with.