The most common complaint I hear in decorating a mobile home is what to do about those paneled walls. Mobile homes tend to have strips of vertical ?molding? that cover the gap between each panel of wallboard. They scream ?mobile home?. There are ways to work around them. First of all, you can remove them and use joint compound and a putty knife to fill the gaps. This works, however, as one of my readers pointed out recently when she tried this method, its difficult to get the gaps as smooth as the wallboard. Her solution was to apply joint compound to the whole wall, then texture and paint. Great idea! A lot of work!

If you don't want to put the work into the joint compound method, you have options. The first is to simply choose one or two co-coordinating paint colors in a rich hue, then make the color of the walls the star. With a beautiful color as background, especially a rich color, then strips will seem to fade away. How about cranberry and mustard? Or a rich moss green and a golden yellow?

Another option is to make the strips seem deliberate. Get some inexpensive molding the same approximate size as the strips, and glue rectangular panel ?frames? onto the walls at regular intervals. Now paint the ?frames? the same color as the trim in the room. Hang artwork inside the frames, and the molding becomes a gallery, and the strips look a deliberate part of the style scheme, separating each ?frame? from the next.

Another problem with mobile home decorating is the question of architectural details. Mobile homes almost always lack them! So add your own! Frame sunken tubs with wallpaper border, stencil arches over doorways, cut ? inch plywood into 4-6 inch wide strips, then add below the ceiling line, use wood putty in the seams, and paint the trim color.

Add charm to a mobile home kitchen by removing the cupboard door below the sink, and add shirred fabric on a rod for a softer look. Cut out the interior of the upper cupboard doors, and replace with glass or fabric. Paint your cabinets. The idea is to create a custom look, and get rid of the cookie cutter mobile home decor.

If your mobile home has paneling, the best thing you can do is to paint it. A good coat of primer and some white semi gloss can take a whole home from blah to fresh and inviting. Removing the paneling is time consuming, and can damage the walls underneath, so consider this option carefully.

Mobile home decorating doesn't have to be a problem, just keep in mind these tips, and use creativity to decorate your mobile or manufactured home in a warm and stylish way.