Question: Take a look at this communication app I am making for our small company (you might need to open it in a new window to see it clearly):

![enter image description here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/khCQC.png)

The application is docked on the right side of the screen. It stays on top, but it never overlaps other windows because I've tricked the computer into thinking that it is a Windows Bar.

Everything is working out great and the CEO loves it, the problem is, the top half looks a bit bland. The bottom half looks nice and professional, the top half just seems... ugly and I can't think of what to do with it.

I've got an option screen that I think looks nice:

![enter image description here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/EmwNG.png)

I've also got a popup for when you click on the "Choose People" button.

![enter image description here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/XjojK.png)

What can I do with the top half to make it look nicer?

**EDIT**

Well, I was going to do Roger Attrill's design, problem was, labels apparently don't have a background image property and it was going to be too hard to overlap controls.

I ended up going with the other two answers. I thought you guys might be interested in seeing the final result:

![enter image description here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/lPz9f.png)

Answer: 
Without disturbing the overall pale and minimal feel that I assume you're going for - I did this quick mock-up - removing the distracting noise of horizontal lines and introducing a hint of colour into the look - also doing away with the MS System font or whatever it was. I'm sure you can do something with the message areas as well...

![enter image description here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/F0kOX.png)
Maybe give every other row a light gray color. Or clean up your "boxes". They don't look as clean as they probably could be. Instead of just bold, make each box header have a color.