CSS galleries can be a great source of inspiration, but if you’re looking for something in particular they can be a bit of a nightmare. They can also be a little repetitive, you’ll often find the same design repeated on many of the galleries.

Since niche galleries have a tighter focus it allows them to be more detailed when adding sites to the gallery, and although they don’t update as often the quality usually makes up for it. Given their focus the same design is a lot less likely to be featured on more than one of the niche galleries.

This is not to say the general galleries are going away, they provide a steady steam of inspiration, but when you’re looking for something in particular niche is nicer.

Below you’ll find a list of niche galleries, that focus on things from color schemes, to layout, and specific content types.

Color Schemes

Light On Dark

http://www.lightondark.com

Light on Dark is a showcase of well designed & coded web sites with light text on a dark background.

Online since January 2006, with approximately 1,000 items of inspiration.

CSS Nature

http://www.cssnature.org

CSS NATURE is a showcase of well designed css and xhtml nature based website designs.

Online since July 2007, with approximately 200 items of inspiration.

Layout

Design By Grid

http://www.designbygrid.com

Design By Grid is a resource to promote websites designed with grids, and the tools and techniques used to make websites with grids. You’ll find a gallery of great grid based designed, as well as links to tutorials and invaluable tools for anyone designing with grids.

Online since May 2007, with approximately 100 items of inspiration.

The Horizontal Way

http://www.thehorizontalway.com/

Most websites display their content vertically, making the user scroll down the page. In some rare cases however the website can be laid out horizontally making users scroll to the right instead, The Horizontal Way is showcase for just these sites. You won’t see to many of these sites, but if you do ever need to design a site that scrolls horizontally, this is the place to go for inspiration.

Online since November 2006, with approximately 40 items of inspiration.

No Resolution

http://www.cssliquid.com

There has long been a discussion on whether websites should be fixed in width or adjust to the size of the users browser. All arguments aside, see some great examples of fluid and elastic designs at No Resolution (formally called CSS Liquid). You’ll also find some resources and tutorials to help you make you next design fluid, or you can use some of the open source templates.

Online since November 2005, with approximately 300 items of inspiration.

Content

I Heart Blogs

http://www.iheartblogs.com

I Heart Blogs is a showcase of well designed and well written blogs.

Online since February 2008, with approximately 40 items of inspiration.

eduStyle

http://www.edustyle.net

eduStyle is a web design gallery dedicated to higher education websites and powered by higher education web design professionals.

Online since January 2007, with approximately 700 items of inspiration.

Carted Up

http://www.cartedup.com

Carted Up is a showcase of online stores, beautifully designed, and easy to operate.

Online since October 2007, with approximately 50 items of inspiration.

Feed My App

http://www.feedmyapp.com

A showcase of web based applications.

Online since June 2007, with approximately 2,500 items of inspiration.

Size

Full Single

http://www.fullsingle.com

Sometimes all you need is one page to convey our message, Full Single is a showcase of full websites that fit in a single page.

Online since January 2007, with approximately 200 items of inspiration.

One Page Folios

http://www.onepagefolios.com

Collection of one page portfolio by designers and developers.

Online since April 2006, with approximately 850 items of inspiration.

Geographic

CSS Design Yorkshire

http://www.css-design-yorkshire.com

Although not exclusively dedicated to the region, this gallery showcases web sites created by css web designers in the Yorkshire region of England.

Online since October 2006, with approximately 2,000 items of inspiration.

Oriental Gallery

http://oriental-gallery.com

For those designing for an oriental audience it may be helpful to view websites designed by oriental designers. Differentiated not just by language Oriental designers have different culture and experience than western designers.

Online since 2007, with approximately 60 items of inspiration.

Content Management Systems

WP Cube

http://wpcube.com

A showcase of the best designed WordPress sites.

Online since December 2007, with approximately 300 items of inspiration.

We Love WP

http://www.welovewp.com

Those WordPress users really like their CMS, another showcase of WordPress powered sites.

Online since June 2007, with approximately 350 items of inspiration.

We Love TXP

http://www.welovetxp.com

Not be left out users of TextPattern showcase their best sites.

Online since July 2007, with approximately 450 items of inspiration.

LoopPress

http://www.looppress.com

Had to sneak in one more WordPress showcase.

Online since November 2007, with approximately 400 items of inspiration.

Moveable Love

http://www.moveablelove.com

This is a place to show off interesting and beautiful sites built with Moveable Type.

Online since February 2008, with approximately 10 items of inspiration.

Web Development Frameworks

Drupal Sites

http://www.drupalsites.net/

A directory that lists websites powered by the open-source content management system Drupal.

Online since November 2005, with approximately 2,000 items of inspiration.

Happy Codr

http://happycodr.com

A showcase of websites built using the Ruby on Rails web development framework.

Online since November 2006, with approximately 700 items of inspiration.

Other

LogoPond

http://www.logopond.com

User submitted gallery of logos, with a hand selected collection of the best logos.

Online since July 2006, with approximately 20,000 items of inspiration.

IllyPads

http://www.illypads.com

A showcase of the best user submitted illustrations.

Online since March 2008, with approximately 100 items of inspiration.

CSS Princess

http://cssprincess.com

Website designed by Female designers are showcased at CSS Princess.

Online since July 2006, with approximately 200 items of inspiration.

Launching Soon Pages

http://launchsoon.com/gallery.php

A new gallery that showcases placeholder pages, for websites that have not launched yet.

Online since February 2008, with approximately 10 items of inspiration.

Business Cards

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dailypoetics/sets/72057594104389710/

A collection of inspiring business card designs.

Online since April 2006, with approximately 700 items of inspiration.

Colour Lovers

http://www.colourlovers.com

COLOURlovers gives the people who use color – whether for ad campaigns, product design, or in architectural specification – a place to check out a world of color, compare color palettes, submit news and comments, and read color related articles and interviews.

Online since December, 2004, with approximately 1,000,000 items of inspiration.

Elements of Design

http://www.smileycat.com/design_elements/

Elements of Design is a different type of web design showcase focusing on specific aspects of web design. It is brought to you by the Smiley Cat Web Design Blog.

Approximately 600 items of inspiration.

Typesites

http://www.typesites.com

Typesites is a weekly showcase of websites with interesting typographic design.

Online since January 2008, approximately 7 items of inspiration.

CSS Drive Menu Designs

http://www.cssdrive.com/index.php/menudesigns/

A gallery of website menus.

Approximately 75 items of inspiration.

I’m sure there are a number of deserving niche galleries that I’ve missed, leave a comment and I’ll keep the list updated.

Gallery inspiration counts as at March 2008.