I appreciate the graphics drawn by the ggplot2 package with R, results are nice and elegant. I decided to imitate the style of ggplot2 with TikZ. Here is a working example:

% Gauthier Vermandel 2014
\documentclass{standalone}
\usepackage{pgfplotstable}
 
 
\definecolor{mygrey}{RGB}{229,229,229}
\definecolor{mygrey2}{RGB}{127,127,127}
\definecolor{mygrey3}{RGB}{240,240,240}
 
 
\pgfplotsset{
 	axis background/.style={fill=mygrey},
	tick style=mygrey2,
	tick label style=mygrey2,
	grid=both,
	xtick pos=left,
	ytick pos=left,
	tick style={
		major grid style={style=white,line width=1pt},minor grid style=mygrey3,
		tick align=outside,
	},
	minor tick num=1,
}
 
 
\begin{document}
  \begin{tikzpicture}
 
	\begin{axis}[draw=white]
 
		\addplot {1/sqrt(2*pi)*exp(-x^2/2)};
 
    	\end{axis}
 
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

TikZggplot2