Ask HN: basic web design for small projects?

As I am seriously hampered by my lack of design skills, I wonder how others cope with those small projects (like small demos) that don't warrant hiring a designer. Are there some tricks to make simple sites look good? I remember one guy writing on HN how he just found a free web design template on the web, but even that approach failed for me so far. Did I just not look in the right places?