How to turn a shabby apartment into a "shabby chic" apartment

Sharing my vision & ideas for turning any shabby apartment into a shabby chic apartment on a very tight budget.
So we've been doing quite a few updates to our very shabby apartment lately and I thought I'd share, for those who are a tight budge but live in an "ooh it's so ugly/dark/boring/old" apartment".  I've lived in this rather over sized but under constructed apartment for going on 10yrs now.  In these rough economical times I think many would agree that our apartment is the "right" apartment for many reasons:

1. price (in dayton, most 1bdrms rent for the price our 2bdrm does) plus utilities are included.
2. size, my bedroom alone is 18' x 10'.  Okay it is rather narrow but it is quite long so Will & I have plenty of room. I have seen 2bdrm houses smaller than our apartment.
3. location...well kind of.  There is public transportation literally outside our door, there are plenty of stores within walking distance.  It is also surrounded by two historical districts (unfortunately for us our building is not part of the restored historical district. lol). Plus we are near Downtown.
4. it's still price.  it's hard to find any place that will pay your utilities (power, heat, trash & water) we pay for our internet and phone...and cable if we wanted it.

So in stating it's positives there are quite a few negatives.  The landlords are an older couple that will fix up any issues but they will do it their way, which is usually the cheapest, fastest way (for them however it takes forever to get done).  Our apartment, out of the 3 buildings was the only one that did not receive any loving attention.  There is ugh!! Paneling EVERYWHERE! there is carpet EVERYWHERE!! we are not talking wood paneling but that old fake wood 1970's paneling.  The carpet...oh don't get me started.  Our main concern and what we realize will be the most expensive undertaking is the carpet in the kitchen.
Yes you heard me right, carpet in the kitchen.  That will be a slow process, so we've decided to start a project book so that we can do little improvements as money allows.
My first project (Oh I should mention my b/f is not big on "projects" he has no vision for these things.  So most of the undertaking will fall to me & occasionally mom will help) was the landing/hallway that seperates our bedroom from the living room. Please excuse the wonky angled pictures but this space is not very big at all.
Before:

After:

Before:

After:

Our next undertaking when we have money is to buy oil based primer & paint the doors eggshell.  I wish I had taken a picture of the mirror before I redid it.  It was dark dark super glossy wood.  I just used a can of pink spray paint & distressed it a bit.
Paint:
Paneling: Tropical Lagoon (Glidden 2 in 1)
Trim: Eggshell base (Olympic)
Wall: is a light tan BCI is all that they put on the can (ColorPlace)
Spray Paint: ballet slipper (Krylon)
Time Spent:
3 Days, this would have been a great weekend project but I started it on a Monday lol.
Cost:
This particular project was FREE since I had all paint in house already, and all items were from our own collection  However originally the costs were as follows.
Tropical Lagoon - $28.96
Eggshell - Free (friend had extra)
Tan - Free (friend had extra)
Mirror: $18.99 (Ebay)
Shabby Picture: $9.99 (Ebay, had this for years)
Candle sconce: $4.99 (Ebay, had for years)
Spray paint: $3.99
Plus brushes which were about $12.00 total, you can see that this project was rather cheap.  I still have plenty of paint for other projects.
Links:
Painting Wood Paneling