It might be paneling, but is it wood? It depends on the age of the job. Alot of the current paneling is basically a photo of wood papered onto a luan substrate.
If it's wood, you can use a product called liquid sandpaper to remove the gloss finish surface. Then prime and paint.
Ron

ron6519 - You might be right about that paneling. I'm sure the bedrooms & bathroom are wood - they are that dark brown, kind of matte looking. The photo is of the living room and it was "updated" with the lighter, more modern look -haha- at some point. It it's not wood - is there a way to paint it?

ogoopogo - Is the Fresh Start latex or oil base?

If this is just a temporary holdover until a renovation, I wouldn't hesitate to just prime and paint. We did that in our basement (has that luan type of paneling) as we aren't ready to sheetrock that area yet and it's held up pretty well. We primed, and then did 2 coats of color. It's certainly not perfect or the best way to go about it, but the way I saw it was that the paint could only help the situation as the paneling looked so terrible in our room.

Use BIN or Bullseye 123 primer (made by Zinsser). Tint the primer to the color of the paint to be used. You may need two coats of primer, depending on the desired paint color---lighter than the paneling migh look better with 2 coats of primer.

Then use the latex of choice.

I lived in a mobile home where I painted the dark walnut paneling. I primed(using 123) and painted pastel blue, violet, or yellow---depending on the room.

I did not need to prep the paneling at all. Nothing but dusting to remove the surface dust.

A second coat of paint was added ten years later---first coat had faded a bit.