Even though my virtual workspace is pretty minimal: dwm+urxvt+screen+irssi+firefox, that doesn’t mean that it can’t look good. Here’s what I’ve done to make my setup visually appealing without adding bloat.

– Change default cursor [http://antonyjepson.wordpress.com/2008/07/07/changing-the-default-x-cursor/]
– Change default icon theme (I choose Tango).
– Change system font (by editing gtkrc-2.0):

#include “/usr/share/themes/Dust/gtk-2.0/gtkrc”
gtk-icon-theme-name = “Tango”
gtk-font-name = “Sans Serif 12”

style “user-font” {
font-name = “Sans Serif 12”
}

Change the background (plenty of sites to choose from)
Add a compositing manager (lightweight xcompmgr+transset or heavy-weight compiz fusion). Of course, I choose xcompmgr.
Change Firefox theme (I choose Dustfox to match my Ubuntu dust gtk theme).
Finally, change terminal defaults (I added a bit of pseudo transparency).