I read through all 11 pages of posts in this thread and I really appreciate everyone's input over the past few years. Thank you! It was awesome and I was totally prepared to tackle this...except for one thing. I had a decent idea about how to remove the automatic's boot/trim, but I don't recall seeing any good pics about exactly how to do it. So, I figured I'd make a contribution...
First of all, if you do this with the car running, you DO NOT need to remove the shifter knob. The car needs to be running at any point when you need to switch between Park and Neutral. However, you should probably remove the shifter knob if you don't want to turn your car on during the procedure.
1. The car can be in Park or Neutral at this point - doesn't matter. With two fingers (or one, if you have big hands like I do), fish around in the bottom right corner of the boot leather until you feel the edge of the plastic trim. Hook your finger(s) beneath that and pull up with even pressure. You'll hear/feel a light click/pop. When you do, work your way around, and the same way you released the first corner, release the others.
2. Now, follow the steps you've read in this thread about removing the primary trim piece (opening the center console lid, then grabbing the trim from underneath of where the bottom of the shifter trim was and pulling firm and with steady pressure). You'll hear/feel a light click/pop, more than likely closest to the center console. Etc., etc.
3. Now, put the car in Neutral. You'll need the shifter knob straight so that you can maneuver the console trim around the shifter trim. Start at the angle I show in the pic and then let common sense guide you the rest of the way.
4. Booyah! Now get to work.
Oh yeah, here's a pic of the 5 tabs in the lid that everyone has mentioned. Be careful not to insert the screwdriver in too far or you risk breaking off the tab closest to the screwdriver.
P.S. It took me about 1.5 hours to do this, but that's because I decided to reuse the LEDs to make an illuminated sunglass holder. It probably added an hour to the whole project because I took my sweet time so I didn't mess anything up (for example, I decided to rip apart the cigarette lighter plug rather than cut any wires and rejoin them - see pic). I went with the front-lit, rather than the back-lit, approach. I think it looks good, but could look better. Oh well, I'm happy and it felt good to knock this one out.
Good luck!