I had to build a bespoke shopping cart, I looked about as to who was doing it right and loved the style of the etsy.com cart, thus I emulated their style, is this unethical in your opinion?<p>Here are the guilty results:
http://www.vin-bio-vin-biologique.fr
I think it's fine to get inspiration as long as you aren't stealing. I modeled mine after amazon. I'm not a guru designer and I took what I liked from about five sites total to create my mashup. Take the ideas/elements you like and make them your own somehow. People will appreciate the originality also.
my first mockup takes inspiration from <a href="http://last.fm" rel="nofollow">http://last.fm</a> and <a href="http://digg.com" rel="nofollow">http://digg.com</a>