Can anyone suggest mods that make Skyrim look better? I know Skyrim looks amazing but theres always room for improvement!

http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1507281-list-graphical-mods-im-using/

That's..an overwhelming list.

Any particular suggestions?

I use every reloaded mod from this guy: http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/users/139369/?tb=mods&pUp=1

Depends on what you are trying to improve. The beauty of the list I linked you to is that Arkngt X has broken the mods into categories because there are so many different areas of the game that can be visually enhanced and so many ways to enhance it. So asking a more specific question in the first place can help us to help you.

My personal recommendation for a "starting kit" would be:

1. The memory fixes etc. in the MEMORY PATCHES section.

2. Everything under GENERAL TEXTURE/MESHES replacers.

3. The first mods under LANDSCAPE, down to Realistic Water Two.

4. The main creature replacers (under CREATURES) and aMidianBorn's Book of Silence (under CLOTHES, ARMORS & WEAPONS).

5. Perhaps a female and male body replacer, under that section.

6. Climates of Tamriel plus the CoT patch (for weathers) and ELFX (for indoor lighting).

Then you'd cover almost every aspect of the game with excellent retextures, have like 2000 different weathers (well, 500 with 4 variations each) and have "realistic" lighting that is very ambient.

I'd also recommend ENB, but start out with the vanilla game (except for ENBoost and the fixes it has (parallax, for example)), as ENB is a rather complicated beast so it takes a while to set up, find a preset you like and tweak it to your liking.

I've tried to order each section so that more general replacers are at the top (i.e. ITEMS starts with Ruins Clutter Improved, which covers many items) and more particular replacers are placed further down (i.e. ITEMS ends with EWIs HD Strongbox, which only replaces one particular item).

Can any of these be installed via the workshop that installs for you?

Steam workshop is a big no no if you want to do more then one or too mods. Steam workshop cant install ENB mods. Use ModOrganizer or Wrye Bash. For ENB use FXAA ENB SweetFX Manager

when i first got skyrim i decided to go with workshop and subscribed to some mods and played and had fun..got off skyrim and later logged back on and workshop was down for like hours on end and i couldnt play till it was back up again hours later...that was enough for me now i use the nexus and nmm.

Yes, use a mod manager. Either NMM (what I'm using), MO (the most advanced) or Wrye Bash. I'd recommend NMM as it's easy to use and works fine. When using texture replacers you want control over the installs, so you know which is installed over what, i.e. you install a general texture replacer first and then a particular one over that, which overwrites some of the textures in the first one. Etc. You also want a manager as it keeps track on what you're doing, i.e. if you uninstall the particular replacer, the manager will place back the textures from the general replacer that you installed first.

I almost never use Steam's Workshop for installing mods, but I think it only works with mods that are packed with bsa's, which means you actually CAN'T install most texture replacers with it, as they often are packaged with loose files.

The HD texture pack is available via the workshop, no?

Im currently seeking a mod that increases grass and foliage density as well as draw distance. Even maxed out you can watch grass populate in the distance while moving. Thats awful.

For Whiterun and area around Whiterun, look here:

http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1510027-a-more-immersive-whiterun-and-outskirts-list-of-mods/

Yes, of course. I said "most" and "often". Of course there are exceptions.