Gray Paneling
I was wondering if there is anyone else out there who has gray paneling in their Eichler home and what they have done to restore it. Any feedback would be appreciated.
I've tried talking to Cabot Stains but they don't recommend using their exterior products on interior surfaces. Their stains made for interiors don't come in the color I need and my local paint store says they can't mix a custom color for the Cabot interior products. The paneling treatment looks like a semi-transparent wash. Got any ideas??
You are looking for a semi transparent or transparent Cabot stain. I don't recall the name right now...
Call a paint shop that has been around for the last 30 or so years. Someone will be able to help.
Hi,
We have grey paneling in our master bedroom. When we moved in, the surface of the paneling was heavily waxed or oiled over the years so it would have beeh difficult to simply touch it up with new stain. There were also alot of marks from where pictures had hung for years. I experimented with a number of different techniques and ended up with a couple that worked pretty well together. I found a product called "easy liquid sander" (w. m. barr & Co) that does a pretty good job of dissolving the current finish and evening out the color on the walls. I used a stiff scrub brush to apply it to the walls and cloth rags to spread it around and even out the surface. It makes a bit of a mess so you will need to protect any furniture or floor that might get splashed and wear good playtex gloves to protect your hands. After that I used a rub-on stain called Jel'd stain that comes in a grey that matched the original pretty well. I used either a cloth rag or a sponge brush to apply it to the walls and rubbed it in pretty thin so that the grain shows through nicely. As the final step, I rubbed on a coating of Howard's feed and wax to give it a nice matte, but rich, finish. We also replaced some of the paneling at the same time with new luan panels and these ended up matching too!
Good Luck!
Thanks for the feedback. Do you recall what color and brand you used??
I'm lucky that nothing has been applied over the original stain, but it also means that it is faded, stained, dirty....you name it. It actually comes off with some water and scrubbing which is actually what happened from the previous owners with one of the rooms. I also plan to try Cabot again.
Jel'd Stain is the brand name. It is made by Wood-Kote and the color is "grey". Pretty straight forward.
I know what you mean by being able to remove the old stain and stains if you rub real hard. But I find it is hard to end up with a consistent finish this way. The "liquid sander" helps to even out the remaining color and de-glosses the dirt and old wax.
Cheers!
