Customize GTK for a small screen?

[Deling_Ren]

I've installed the latest vanilla ubuntu on an old Thinkpad x60 with a 1024x768 screen. It seems to be running fairly smoothly since I have 4G RAM and an SSD. My only complaint, however, is that the bulky GTK controls take up too much real estate on the small screen. I decreased all default fonts to 9 points. But I still want to cut down the bells and whistles to get a simple and clean look. My other laptop is a Macbook Air 11", which isn't too much bigger (1366x768). But due to OS X's slick theme, I can fit a lot more content into the screen.

Any suggestions are appreciated. I'm open to other flavors of ubuntu as well, if necessary. I mostly only run 3 apps: chrome, thunderbird, and terminal. Thanks.

[grahammechanical]

I am not sure what you are really talking about when you say GTK controls. But we can reduce the size of the Launcher (panel on the left side). We can make it auto-hide. We can scale the menu and title bars. This is done through System Settings either Appearance or Screen Displays.

Regards.

[Deling_Ren]

I'm thinking along the lines of controls like buttons and dropdown boxes. I want to trim down the borders. When you have a screen that small, every pixel matters, especially when you are adjusting from dual 27" screens at work :)
Yeah, I'm already auto hiding the launcher.