Paneling can be a bit of a pain to paint over, not impossible or anything, but it is a bit labor intensive and needs some special treatment done before you paint. But if you follow these next steps, your painted paneling will look good and stay looking good.

The first thing you'll need to do is get a few sheets of 60-grit sandpaper. I believe that any hardware store or any department type store will have some, they will come in a standard 5 pack, and you can just pick up one of those. It will clearly say 60 grit on the package, so you'll know exactly what you are getting.

Now then, you want to take this sandpaper and scratch the heck out of all the paneling that you want to paint. It doesn't have to be sanded smooth or anything like that, just scratched up, and in the home improvement business this procedure is called 'scoring the surface'. You just want to rough the surface up from corner to corner, and everywhere in between. Truth be told, if you want to cheer yourself up after a bad day, this is what you want to do! You’ll feel really good about making something look really bad.

When you are finished, you need to take a damp sponge, and I mean just damp, and wipe off the entire area that you have scored, rinsing the sponge frequently. This will remove any dust residue that remains, then let that dry for 30 minutes or so.

Now then, the reason you have done this is to allow the first coat of paint, which will be a primer, to adhere to the walls. Paneling is coated with a slightly glossy finish, which is put on at the factory to resist moisture. By scoring the surface, you have now penetrated the moisture barrier, and any primer will now be able to flow into the scratches and grab the actual paneling itself.

I personally like Kilz latex primer for all my painting jobs, although any brand name primer will work. Also, make sure it is the latex kind, which is a whole lot easier to use than the oil based Kilz.

That said, roll on the primer over the paneling, and with a well-ventilated room, it should be ready to repaint in a few hours, or overnight if you can wait that long. Then, get a quality paint to go over that, choose your color, and paint the surface just like you would any other wall in your house. The results will be lovely, and it will look as good and last as long as any other room that you have painted.