I’d use a paint sprayer for a entire room. Hire a pro or teach yourself.
You’ll get a much smoother finish.
They aren’t that expensive.
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Considering that paneling is just fancy plywood, I’d go with 1/4 inch if you really, really don’t want to do drywall.
But as others have said, drywall is a skill that can be taught by YouTube. It really is simple for a basic square room. Speaking from experience.
Paneling is pretty thin, but it’s applied over existing wall covering, not as a stand-alone, unless you’re going high end with tongue and groove.
Drywall actually doesn’t require much skill. If you’re an idiot with drywall, you just tape and mud it, sand down your mistakes, mud it again, and repeat until you finally get it smooth. It’s not rocket science. And it’s foolproof. If you goof, you just sand it down and try again.
It’s fun to watch a pro do it because they smooth it out so quickly and get it so smooth that you almost don’t have to do any sanding at all. But us idiot DIYers don’t need to be that good. Sure, it will take you a lot longer than it will take a professional to do it, but you’ll eventually get there.
Exposed plywood looks cheap and crappy. Don’t do it.
Some people think that putting the mud on thick and sanding down to flat is the way to go. It’s better to put too little instead of too much. Building up is the way to go. The most important coat is the first one. You need to have enough mud to embed the tape (whether it’s paper or mesh) but not so much that the tape is proud of the joint and will be hit by the sander.
Or just do a skim coat and then do a textured finish using an air compressor and a hopper to spray it on. Covers all ills and is fast.
I’m at best medium-handy, but I’ve done light drywalling (one wall, and a few patches), and it’s not rocket surgery. In fact, I’d think easier than doing a nice job with plywood. You don’t need to be super-precise with the drywall cutting, since all the gaps are covered (and if the piece is a little big, can trim it with a knife right in place), so the rough work is a lot easier than fitting plywood. Taping and mudding isn’t hard either. You won’t be as quick as a professional, and a pro could probably find the imperfect spots in your job, but after paint it will still look OK – good enough for a cabin in the woods and I doubt the average person could tell which walls you did and which ones the professionals did.
I’d rock it. IMHO, it is a pain in the ass, and I’ve done a lot of remodels. I’ve my own hopper and compressor, all the knives and a sheet rock square.
It’s a dusty mess, but in a new building, that’s not a big deal. And it’s easier to fudge if you make a bad cut.
For myself, if I choose plywood, I would go for 1/2 inch. If you go thinner, I think you will get waves and weird shadows between the studs.
Thank you all for the advice and I have to say that the safety and warning messages from ftg and FluffyBob and the many, many people (enipla, Quercus, Chefguy, Gus Gusterson, and literally I think the final 75% of the posters) just encouraging us to sheetrock it and learn/improve as needed.
We are going to sheetrock the walls and do a simple pine tongue and groove planking on the ceiling. We are doing walls and sheetrock first and if we up our skills, we may do the ceiling too. It will probably be cheaper and certainly safer! It may take us longer, but our own lingering questions about whether we would ever be happy with the look of plywood (filmore and engineer_comp_geek ) helped convince us that if we aren’t happy with the mudding, etc. we can bring someone in for a day or two to help professionalize the look and our effort.
Thank you all!
I’m late to the party on this, I think your decision is a good one.
Re: plywood, I’ve had experience with your situation: the cabin we purchased has 1/4 plywood walls (painted) and they’ve held up fine for the 60+ years since it was built. Nailed up and with butt joints that are not noticeable once you have furniture and stuff on the walls. If that was your choice that would be a good one.
Re: drywall: At one point, before we found our cabin, we were looking at building from scratch. When we discussed the interior with the builder we said we wanted clear finished tongue-in-groove pine walls and he was adamant that was a mistake. He insisted we go with painted drywall. The problem with clear coated pine on walls is that it looks amazing and bright for a few years, but UV light dramatically darkens and yellows it over time and you end up with a dark room. He convinced us to go with drywall. (If you want to see what colour clear pine eventually becomes just google “antique pine stain”)
The drywall is a good choice for a new build.
For those of you commenting on why not drywall - the answer (in my situation) is that I have a remote off-grid island. Everything must be boated in. The difference in volume & weight and shipping cost between the two is quite significant.
Dry wall is definitely a safer choice.
On the other hand, do what you want. It’s a cabin, take a chance. Get all arts and crafts with it. (A dash, just a dash, of rosemailing here and there if you’re up to it.)
I think most plywood would look kind of cheap. But then again, sometimes I see a piece of plywood with a beautiful grain that comes in with shipping on a pallet and it’s a shame that it’s doomed to a short life of abuse.
I’d probably prefer framing it to hide the seams and give it a finished coffered look.
Or, if you have access to a radial arm saw, turn the seams into a feature (for one section) by cutting the plywood into tetris shapes.
While we’re at it, have you seen what they can do with wall paper these days!!!
I’m thinking of getting something like that for around the turlet.
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