Good idea to paint my wood walls?

I own a 50 year-old bungalow. The ground floor is very modern and went through many renovations. However, the basement has an older feel to it and all the walls and doors are made of wood.





Because it's so dark in the basement, I was thinking of painting the walls in a light color. Would painting over the wood increase or decrease my house's value?





The wood looks something like this:


http://www.crawlspacemedia.com/wp-content/themes/newmix/images/downloads/wood_wall_10.jpg





Thanks.Good idea to paint my wood walls?
we had a 80 year old house and through the years panelling was put up in the kitchen, as well as, the basement. In the kitchen, I lightly sanded the walls and used a cement patch to stucco the walls, white. It looked like something out of Greece. It turned out great and stayed in good condition for the 10 years that we lived there. Remember to caulk between the joints of the panelling/wood.





In the basement, I sanded slightly and painted over the walls with kilz, and then painted the color of my choice.





If you have panelling or wood if it is glossy, you need to sand the walls a bit so the latex paint will stick. After you paint if the paint still chips off with your fingernail, you can apply a couple coats of water-based polyurethane on top. Let the polyurethane dry between coats.





I think all the painting really helped the appearance of the house and there was no trouble selling it when the market was strong.Good idea to paint my wood walls?
I cringe as I write this because I love wood, but yes, in your case I believe there's no harm in painting the walls. It's your home so you should be able to do what you like. Painting ceilings lighter could also help.





From a home value standpoint there's probably no difference. I just had my 9-year old ranch appraised for a refi and due to the overall mortgage crisis my home value is in the basement (along with your wood paneling ; ). Great location, custom cabinets, ceramic tile, pond, landscaping, etc. Still appraised at $30K less than when I built a few years ago.





But I love my home and you should love yours...do what makes YOU happy!
I painted my living room paneleing and it looks great, I did a very light sanding as the paneling was semi pourous, I then I just washed it down with some tsp . In the bathroon there was panleing too and i used paintable wallpaper over it with a linen texture (no need to fill in the grooves when you use this unless you want to)in there to make it look less like a trailer. As far as house value the people who would think they want their wall paneling to stay wood unpainted are outnumbered by the peopel who think you should paint them to update them. IMHO
I've painted wood paneling for years, and if I had a house that had knotty pine in it I'd paint that too. If there's a shiny surface you need to sand, then use a primer, then paint. Believe me, it'll be worth the effort you put in on it. A wonderful fairly inexpensive way to update that basement.
Painting, unless your painting oak floors, will not decrease your house's value. I had the old dark wood in my basement too. I primed it with a stain killer and panited it all off white.