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}