There are a few ways to make your shell more attractive.

Changing the colors of the window (OS X only)

When you open up Terminal, select Terminal > Preferences from the upper left-hand corner of your screen.

Pick a preset (they’re all ugly!) or tweak to your satisfaction. Make sure you click the Default button on the bottom left if you’ve changed your preset.

Try a different font

The default monospaced fonts are never very nice. I personally like Inconsolata, but there are plenty of others. Download and install the ttf or otf files, then set the font in your shell.

OS X: To change the font, open up Terminal and go to Terminal > Preferences. I use Inconsolata at 14pt.

Use color on the command line

Besides customizing your window backgrounds, you can also have colors show up on your screen. Edit your .bash_profile and add the following lines.

export CLICOLOR=1
export LSCOLORS=ExFxCxDxBxegedabagacad

If you’re using a black background, try this one instead.

export CLICOLOR=1
export LSCOLORS=gxBxhxDxfxhxhxhxhxcxcx

Save the file.

For the change to take effect you either need to open up a new terminal window or run source ~/.bash_profile.

Now give ls a shot and rejoice in the colored directories!