Have you tried just painting one section and see hour you like it with the groves

See this transformation https://www.houzz.com.au/discussions/5527157/a-cracking-transformation-of-a-1970s-brick-home

I would price putting plasterboard over it. The filling compound isn’t cheap and plasterboard is, it may work out cheaper.

Depending on the whole space, I'd consider keeping the main timber feature wall, though not all the walls. People are installing laminate floorboards as feature walls these days and you have the real thing.

If it doesn't suit the style you're going for and you need a budget solution, I agree with the suggestions. It's a huge job to fill and smooth all those grooves. It's worth finding out just what the cost difference compared to getting plasterboard is. If your ideal preference would be VJ you obviously like the texture so painting the diagonal boards might be sufficient. If you were to change the orientation of the grooves you'd have to consider the visual effect vertical or horizontal lines have on the space. I suspect diagnoal actually works well with those dimensions, at least from what I can see of the room.

After seeing your pics I'm seriously considering that. The transformation of that house is amazing and it has so many similar features to mine. It must have been a trend to have the boards running I'm that direction as a lot of the houses here, built in the same era, have them. I don't know how many times I've wished they ran them vertical or horizontal!ὡE

Thanks everyone! I wasn't planning on changing the orientation of the grooves, just filling them in, sanding and repeating till the surface was flat enough to resemble plaster board and then paint it.

"Believe me, if money was no option I would put new vj over it!"

So you'd install diagonal vj? Then I really don't understand why not paint what you've got?

Maceyjean i think they mean straight VJ boards.

might be worth looking into taking off the diagonals carefully then re aliging them either horizontally or vertically.

"Believe me, if money was no option I would put new vj over it!"

"I wasn't planning on changing the orientation of the grooves,"

Thanks Alison. Keeping the tight budget in mind I was looking at those two lines. I got wanting to update the look or tone down the colour, but thought if the grooves and their orientation aren't really a problem why fix it? Though reading back I see I missed there were consecutive replies and in the previous one Tania said she wished they were vertical or horizontal. Diagonal isn't on trend right now but wait lomg enough and it will probably will be again. I don't think it's a simple matter of vertical or horizontal, the choice of which could affect the room because anything striped has an effect. Maybe even a mix, one on the forward wall and the other on the receding walls?

I like your suggestion to reuse the boards. It might need a few extra boards by the time they're cut and moved but it would achieve the desired result with less cost and wastage and I suspect it while it's not a small job it would still be easier than all that gap filling and smoothing.

We had the exact same diagonal paneling in a previous house we were in. We didn't have the budget or the time to do too much to it but it was the darkness of the wood that we couldn't live with. We gave it a good sand and prep and painted it a light colour - it came up really well, we were really surprised at how good it looked, and brightened up the whole area. While we didn't specially like the diagonals, sometimes you have to make compromises based on resources available and how long you are going to be in a house etc. Your option to fill the gaps sounds like a hang of a lot of torturous hard work!! We were very pleased with the decision we made :)