Main Page Product image sizing and layout Config. HELP!

I'm really new to this and I've been trying to figure out how to configure my layout by trial and error. I've finally signed up for this forum so hopefully someone can help me out. I've looked everywhere and can't seem to find the answer to my problem.

Does anyone know how to change the product image size to make them bigger on the main page? I tried to change them in the Admin/configuration/images and messed around with the values in there. But nothing seems to change on my page. Help!

Also, I want the whole center part of my page to be one color, like that gray/blue color. But I have those white spaces in between. Does anyone know how to make it look like one whole box?
for example, look at this site.
http://www.modtomodern.com/shop/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=1
I kinda want it similiar where the pictures are enlarged and all the menus/images are within "one boxed" area.
Sorry if I sound unclear.

I'm trying to make my page look really simple and clean. My header will be finished on Monday so I'm trying to have my page configured asap so I can have my site up by next week.

Here's a link to my website. https://www.spunkybunky.com

You could start by cropping the images.

For instance, the image leopardbone has 170 px of empty space on the left side alone.

I usually use a graphics program to fit a picture exactly a pixel height width. Image is much lighter and crisp.

By cropping and resizing, a nice thumbnail image at 150 x 112

Thanks, but no matter what size my image is that I upload.. the image still appears to be the same size under "NEW PRODUCTS FOR AUGUST". I want all my products under that section to be "bigger". ALso, do you know how to take away the words "NEW PRODUCTS FOR AUGUST". ? THanks for the response.

Oh... do u know if you are supposed to change the values for the IMAGES under CONFIGURATION?

Admin/configuration/images and set sizes.

Again, you need to format your images to get rid of all the blank white space. For instance, if you save the image I just posted earlier, and changed the settings in admin/configuration/images to 150 X 150, you will see a big improvement.

Thank you so much! I finally tried it out and it looks much better. But there is one more problem. Some of the images that appear on the main page don't align in the rows. What do I do? Some prices and names of products appear higher than others. Is this a result of diff image sizing prob? Please help. Thanks.

That's because your images are not all one uniform size.

Say for instance, you have a maximum image size of 150x150 in admin/configuration/images. Maybe some images are 110x80, and another at 150x90, etc. It renders a disjunct look as you describe.

The trick is to make all of the images 150x150. So, crop the original image to less than 150x150 but as big as possible inside that range, create a new image at 150x150, paste cropped image in it, save. Works perfect, everything centered and aligned.

There are probably other solutions out there, this one works for me.