Short term fix for false pine ceiling, paint or remove?

[Pannacotta]

We have inherited the most revolting 1970s varnished pine false ceiling in our kitchen.
We aim to re-do the kitchen in a few years time and can't decide whether in the mean time we should paint the boards white (which would take a few coats of primer/paint) or remove it all, which would mean using a builder and then electrician to alter the spotlights afterwards.
Not sure which woudl be easier/cheaper...

If you inherited such a charming "feature" what did you do about it?

I would paint it, then remove it when you re-do the kitchen so that all the messy work is done at the same time. It will look totally different when painted.

I believe that they are considered a fire hazard, especially with spotlight fittings.

We have the same and are planning to do our kitchen in the future.

An electrician said that we would need to take down the timber and have fireproof boards put up instead, especially with the spot light fittings, as it would never pass building regs.

Thanks.
God I hope the wood isn't a fire hazard, the spotlights are not halogen they are well insulated and my electrician didn't comment when he did some work in the kitchen (and he is a fussy old thing)...
Am leaning towards painting it, mainly due to the mess, but will take some advice on the fire issue. I did had a fire safety check recently and they didnt say anything...

hey never mind a ceiling, we have walls of the stuff, nice!

(other 70s features in our home include a hatch which I LOVE and sinks in 2 of the bedrooms which are surprisingly useful!)

Paint them, you don't know how damaged the ceiling could be/is behind the boards. If you remove them now you may end up being forced to do the hard work sooner or, to live with something that is worse than what you have.

Pine walls - NICE!

Oh we had sinks in all the bedrooms when we moved in - it had been a rental property - but I got rid of them all after an ex told me that all men piss in sinks when they cant be bothered to walk to the bathroom!

Sorry to lower the tone...

If you avoid gloss paint they may even look reasonably nice.

(Have you seen all those swedish house or New England style ones )

I would use eggshell for sure...

I agree the Swedish/New England style boards look lovely but might be a bit out of place in our Victorian semi, stll am sure it will a huge improvement on the dark varnished pine which is awful and light sapping.