I like this very much http://www.bvckup.com/
-kalos
Beautiful site! Love it, and I know what you mean.
If you're looking for a free solution, it may not be so easy, because the aesthetically best designs aren't. Then it depends on what you need more: the css and javascript to display the menu, or a professionally designed color scheme and graphics?
For the former, you could find a web page with a css menu that you like and just copy the menu code from source. If there are any license issues, they will usually be specified in the source code comments. You can almost certainly find free css / javascript menus on various scripting sites, too; they tend to be public domain (they are just simple algorithms, after all). Or use a free theme as an example (the
Fusion theme for wordpress has a nicely done menu and is free).
For the latter (graphic design), there's no easy way. I couldn't design my way out of a bathtub, so I did eventually buy a commercial theme (ca $35, there are cheaper ones too). It's hopeless when you don't have the skill or the tools.
Then there are commercial apps that come with ready-made designs that you can use directly or tweak. These apps come prepackaged with moderately well-designed graphics, such as buttons, themes and color schemes that you can fiddle with. For example, you could try
Easy Button & Menu Maker. It sells for about 20 Euro, so not cheap for a one-time use, but it's something you could consider. Perhaps even a trial version would suffice.
(Then there are more expensive, advanced ones such as Xara or Artisteer. I don't think there are free alternatives that would also include ready-made designs.)
