I'm a long time user of the Contextual Related Posts plugin for WordPress.
The thing is that if you activate thumbnails, you'll end up with this kind of ugly list:

So I've written some CSS to beautify this, and make the final result aligns with TwentyEleven (WordPress default theme):

And here is the CSS producing the result above:
#crp_related ul { list-style: none; float: left; margin: 0; } #crp_related li, #crp_related a { float: left; overflow: hidden; position: relative; text-align: center; } #crp_related li { margin: .9em; border: 1px solid #ddd; padding: 6px; } #crp_related li:hover { background: #eee; border-color: #bbb; } #crp_related a { width: 150px; height: 150px; } #crp_related a:hover { text-decoration: none; } #crp_related img { max-width: 150px; margin: auto; } #crp_related .crp_title { position: absolute; height: inherit; bottom: 6px; left: 6px; padding: 3px; width: 144px; /* = 150px - (3px * 2) */ color: #fff; font-size: .9em; text-shadow: #000 .1em .1em .2em; background: rgb(0.5, 0.5, 0.5); background: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.5); } #crp_related li:hover .crp_title { background: rgb(0.2, 0.2, 0.2); background: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); }
I've integrated this CSS code via a widget, using the same technique I've detailed here.
This CSS was tested against the version 1.7.2 of Contextual Related Posts, and for reference, here is my plugin configuration:

And FYI, my post default thumbnail is from KDE's Oxygen icon set, which I found on my system in /usr/share/icons/oxygen/128x128/apps/knotes.png.