Hi Tina, thanks for posting, it is all looking great. Shame about the panelling, but sometimes these things happen for a reason. It is great the armoire matches the doors so well when they are all on one wall, but I don't think you need to have the bed and side tables matching, especially when they are on another wall. My issue with painting furniture, while I love it, is the maintenance. It does chip over time and becomes one more thing to paint. I don't know what the timber is in your furniture but another possible option, especially to give you the coastal vibe is to lime it. To do this successfully, you will need to sand all the existing stain off it and go back to the raw timber. The darker the original timber, the less limed look you will get so bear that in mind too. I did an old bunk bed up that had seen better days, for my grands bedroom. It was a dark red wood, but with 4 coats of stain I got the look I was after which was that driftwood/coastal look. The whole thing looks totally new again. Sorry I can't post a photo as this function no longer works for me. Have a look at the Feast Watson range of liming stains, they have some gorgeous soft colours as well, but they let the timber show through rather than having the solid painted look. It is a very easy product to use, it dries quickly - I did the 4 coats over 2 days effortlessly. The hard work is in the sanding.

I agree with oklouise- it might be worth waiting to see how happy you are with wall positioning and other issues. The cheapest option would be plasterboard/gyprock sheeting. Get some quotes- if you strip it yourself, then the plasterer do the sheeting and setting, then you paint. This would be prime time to insulate the walls (probably have no insulation given the period of the home), so don't let anyone convince you to gyprock straight over the top! If you can't afford plastering now, be aware it will take many cans of paint and primer to cover this dark coloured timber. If you are ok spending +$500 to paint something + your labour, to then rip it down in 6-12mth??

I agree it's a fantastic house I have a similar one with updated kitchen etc, Removing any swags and the painting done this is a more updated look. I'ts a shame that it's empty, how much would it cost to get someone to style a couple of rooms, kitchen dining lounge and take a few great photos for the purpose of selling, you could enlarge and frame some to hang on the wall so that you wouldn't have need to keep hiring furniture. Kitchen table chairs and a large choir rug, lounge with coffee table and a couple of lamps, no clutter would really help. Where do you live we could all come by and help!

No, no and no. Once timber is painted it is really hard to get back to the original. Give it a thorough clean, live with it for a year, and then decide if it still needs to be vandalised to fit your contemporary aspirations. It seems so strange that you have purchased a house that is almost 100 years old, with lots of light and period charachter, and which has had lots of people live in it before you bought it, and they never needed to paint the timber panelling. If you paint your timber panelling then the people who live in your home after you have sold it will curse our current contemporary trend of whiting out all our timber. While you are the new owner, you are also the custodian of this piece of history, and sometime in the future you will be selling your period home to new custodians. Once this current contemporary trend fades then do you plan on repainting it to fit the next current contemporary trend? Love your period home for what it is, and please don't vandalise it to match contemporary trends. Dr Retro of Dr Retro House Calls.