[revorad]

Gathering skill will take time, so for that read up on the sources often linked here. But to get your apps looking less than fugly asap, just copy others. Buy some cheap wordpress themes, view source, rip them apart to pick and choose individual elements. Copy the CSS from the best designed sites out there.

Initially it will feel like you're cheating, but over time you will learn the patterns and develop your own style.

EDIT: This couldn't have arrived at a better time - https://postgres.heroku.com. Just look at that beautiful design. A lot to be learnt (and copied!) there.

[munaf]

Agreed. It's very easy to learn by example, and with all the great CSS frameworks out there you won't need Photoshop to produce good-looking widgets. A lot of my early designs were based on ideas from this book:

http://www.amazon.com/Web-Designers-Idea-Book-Vol/dp/1600619...