Here's an out of the box idea to brighten it up and remove the carpet, but should be easier to do.
Take all the panels out, peel the carpet off, then take it to your local bed liner guy and have him spray the panels in your favorite bright color. Then just reinstall. Water proof, super easy to clean, tough...
My guy has white, grey, black, red, blue, green, yellow...you name it. Heck...if you router out a design in wood and staple it to the panel, once they spray over it, it looks embossed in there.