Ok, so this is a common area of a little house I bought at auction in 2013. I will refer to this house as the "Markes House," but I really should call it the "dog pee house" since the dog that lived there seemed to use every corner as a urinal - for years! It was an estate sale and, when you do this for a few years, you will run into many a sad situation. Seems the old guy that lived here seemed to overlook certain flaws or habits in his beloved Fido and I was the "winner" of the clean up prize! Floors were removed down to the joists and that was the start. OK - on to this specific change. This cabinet wasn't in horrible shape, but as I moved through this reno, the adjacent kitchen and the walls became lighter and this built-in began to look worse and worse to me.
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One thing I did in this hall was to skim the surface of the paneling with Durabond 90 to fill in the indentations an make it look smooth (like drywall) after painting. I was assured at the local builders supply that this product would stick to anything and do the trick - and it did. In retrospect though, I wouldn't do it this way mainly because of the time involved, and I won't be sure of the long term wear/cracking until a few years from now. However, 2 years in, it's still in good shape. What I'll do in the future is just rip out the cheesy paneling and drywall it.
Here is a shot of the cabinet in the middle of the transformation. I ripped out some shelves planning to take the entire thing out, but I left it like this while working in other areas and ended up getting opinions from curious neighbors and other passersby. They all seemed to think a desk was the right thing for this space - so I left it.
The last shot is the finished product after paint and my tenant moving in. I drilled a hole in the back corner of the desktop for wires and installed an outlet in the bottom right corner of the underside, making it practical. My tenant loved it!
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