My background is general back-to-front development. However, I've always worked on teams that had dedicated designers so I never had to actually make something

My background is general back-to-front development. However, I've always worked on teams that had dedicated designers so I never had to actually make something look good. I have pretty strong CSS and HTML skills, but it was always for implementing someone else's design, not doing anything on my own. I've recently been doing some of my own projects and realized that pretty much everything I make looks like ass. It's the one piece missing from my ability to do a complete website by myself. Plus, for personal philosophical reasons, I'm growing more appreciative of visual aesthetics in every aspect of life, so being able to incorporate that into my chosen profession is important to me. There are some good resources out there, and I feel that learning even just a few things about design makes a big difference. Learning to recognize different font families, the importance of alignment, etc. have all made a big difference. But I still feel there's something lacking - I still find it difficult to cross the boundary "doesn't suck THAT bad" and "beautiful." Aside from getting a degree in graphics design, I'm still not sure how to get the knowledge and techniques needed. I suspect part of it is that I just need to practice a lot more, and design lots of sites just to see what happens and develop my style. But some "hacks" to make the process faster would be very welcome.