I've seen people do it with just gloss black, but not with any color, though TEKWATCH on M3F used to have his upper center dash section (the part in your picture that has the screen) painted a pretty similar blue to his car's paint.
If you do do it the biggest thing you can do to make a difference is preparation, preparation and preparation. Sand everything smooth, prime it, sand it again, maybe prime depending on how smooth you get it, then paint, paint, paint, clear. The more meticulous you are in the beginning stages the better your end product is going to be. The more half assed your pred the worse it will be.
I agree that the lower section would look good. The problem with doing the upper section is that it makes the upper dash glossy which is just going to reflect sunlight back into your eyes.