we are doing some renovating and the kitchen has panel walls. what can we do to improve the look of these with out riping them down? can they be painted? or maybe texturized? any prev experience advice would be great

I'm not sure what the best asnwer is, but I don't think it looks that good when you just paint over panel walls. it loosk cheap somehow. Maybe you could just hang new drywall over them and take it from there.