Help with my walls needed

We all like our homes to be what we want them to be, but sometimes they can be a real frustration. When I married Rick in Jan. 05 he owned his home. I moved in and have been trying to make it look good and a bit more up to date.

Every room in the house is dark 70's paneling, no drywall behind it, and all the cabinets are the same coloring. It is very depressing when you are in it all day. I have been trying to figure out what to do with it and thought I might just paint the paneling. Two problems, my husband does not understand why I do not like all this dark paneling and said I can paint one wall and see how it looks. The other problem is the fireplace is also drab. I have a picture here and know there are ways to paint paneling and the fireplace, but I need to have suggestions and some know how from others. I want to paint this wall, the cabinets, fireplace and bricks in front of the fireplace. I did not get a good picture as stuff is all around from the baby, but I think you can see it well enough.


I bought "oops" paint from home depot and have blue, cream (off white) and then a burnt red for accent. Anybody have decorating ideas and something that worked for them when painting a fireplace or paneling?