Painting Wooden Panelling and Wainscoting in London Homes

The Art of Painting Panelling

Wooden panelling is one of the most rewarding features to decorate in a period London home. Done well, a painted panelled room has a quality and formality that no other wall treatment can replicate. Done poorly — with inadequate preparation, the wrong sheen level, or a finish that telegraphs every brush mark and dip — it looks worse than it would unpainted.

The good news is that panelling is genuinely forgiving when prepared and painted properly. The structured geometry of rails, stiles, and panels actually makes it easier to achieve a smart result than a flat plastered wall, because the shadows cast by the panel mouldings carry a lot of the visual work. What matters is the quality of the flat panel faces, the crispness of the cut-in at coving and cornice, and the consistency of sheen across the entire surface.

Types of Panelling in London Period Homes

London period properties contain a wide range of panelling types, each requiring a slightly different approach.

Full-height Georgian panelling is the most architecturally significant type. Rooms with panelling from floor to ceiling, in the formal pattern of dado, field, and cornice, date predominantly from the eighteenth century. This type of panelling is most commonly found in Belgravia, Mayfair, and the older Georgian streets of Islington, Canonbury, and Bloomsbury. Full-height panelling in a Georgian room is an asset of the first order and deserves extremely careful treatment: proper stripping of any paint build-up, repair of damaged sections, and a finish that enhances rather than buries the moulding profiles.

Wainscoting or dado panelling — panelling to dado height only, with a plaster wall above — is far more common. This type appears throughout Victorian and Edwardian period properties and has been extensively revived in contemporary interior design. Dado panelling is often made from MDF in more recently installed schemes and from pine or deal in original Victorian installations.

Raised and fielded panelling has panels that project forward of the frame — the panels are raised in the centre and have a chamfered profile around the edges. This is the most handsome and most demanding type to prepare properly, because any deficiency in the chamfered profile is very visible in raking light.

Flat panelling — simple recessed panels without raised centre fields — is simpler to prepare and more forgiving to paint, making it a popular choice for contemporary panelling installations.

Preparation: The Most Important Stage

The quality of the finish on panelled surfaces is entirely dependent on the quality of the preparation. This is even more true for panelling than for flat walls, because the geometry of the panelling means that light catches at low angles across the surfaces, making any imperfection immediately visible.

Stripping paint build-up. Panelling that has been painted multiple times over many decades can have significant paint build-up — thick, obscuring the crispness of the moulding profiles and creating a surface that is uneven and difficult to paint cleanly. For panelling that has reached this state, we recommend chemical stripping or careful heat stripping to get back to bare timber before re-priming from scratch. This is time-consuming but transformative.

Filling and smoothing. Once at bare timber or a sound previous paint film, any dents, cracks, and open grain need to be filled with an appropriate filler. On pine or deal panelling, open grain in the flat panels should be filled with a grain-filling product or built up with primer coats sanded between each to achieve a smooth, grain-free surface — particularly important if a high sheen finish is planned.

Sanding. Thorough sanding between every coat is what produces a glass-smooth result. We sand with 180–240 grit after primer and undercoat, then 320–400 grit between finish coats for the highest quality work. Dust is managed carefully — a wax barrier at the base of the panel room to protect floors, and dust sheets over furniture and carpets.

Priming. Bare timber needs proper priming before undercoat and topcoats. We use a flexible oil-based or water-based primer appropriate to the timber species and the finish system. For MDF panelling — which is very thirsty and prone to grain-raising if a water-based primer is used too liberally — we apply Zinsser Bulls Eye 1-2-3 as a first coat to seal the surface, then work up with subsequent coats.

Choosing the Right Sheen Level

Sheen level selection is crucial for panelling. The wrong sheen makes good preparation look mediocre; the right sheen can make a modest paint job look genuinely special.

Dead flat / full matte: Rarely appropriate for panelling. Flat finishes on woodwork look chalky and are hard to clean. They can work on a heavily textured rustic panelling scheme, but for most period panelling they are the wrong choice.

Soft sheen / eggshell: The most popular choice for panelling in residential interiors. Eggshell has just enough lustre to reflect light elegantly without telegraphing imperfections. It is wipeable, relatively durable, and appropriate in virtually any room. Farrow & Ball's estate eggshell, Little Greene's intelligent eggshell, and Mylands' wood and metal eggshell are all excellent products that deliver a beautiful, hand-applied look.

Satin: A step up in sheen from eggshell. Satin works well in dining rooms, hallways, and formal reception rooms where a degree of formality is appropriate. It is more demanding of preparation — any imperfection shows more clearly in a satin finish than in eggshell.

Semi-gloss and gloss: Full gloss panelling is historically appropriate in Georgian and Regency interiors, where the reflective quality of glossed surfaces was valued and the craftsmanship of the painter was demonstrated in the quality of the hand-applied finish. Modern full gloss requires impeccable preparation and is usually spray-applied in premium work. Semi-gloss is a more forgiving middle ground.

Colour for Panelling in Period Rooms

Traditionally, painted panelling in Georgian and Regency interiors was painted in a single colour — often a period-appropriate earth tone, a soft sage green, a warm grey-green, or a cream — with the cornice and ceiling typically in white or off-white above. This approach is still the most architecturally coherent choice for formal period rooms.

The contemporary approach of painting the panelling in a deep, saturated colour — inky blue, forest green, deep burgundy, or near-black — has produced some spectacular interiors when handled well. These schemes require the panelling to be painted in a single strong colour without contrast on the field versus the frame, and they work best in rooms with good natural light where the depth of colour does not make the space feel oppressive.

For advice on colour choices and specification for your panelled room, contact us for a consultation visit.