My Xubuntu installation contains a number of KDE apps (e.g. Krusader) which have a nice QT theme. I was wondering if there was any way I could apply that QT theme to apps such as Openoffice and skype?

The gtk2-engines-qtcurve package should give you what you want for most GTK apps. Skype has an option to use QTCurve, but OpenOffice just calls GTK colours, I believe.
Note that you'll have to use the KDE System Settings dialog to actually edit the QTCurve settings, and AFAIK you can't use non-QT Curve themes.
I could be wrong though, I haven't looked into it much.

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How does openoffice look on a KDE installation? does it imitate a GTK theme or has it some sort of KDE integration?

I believe in the package repositories (For Debian/Ubuntu, at least) there's a style which is what it defaults to in KDE. Oxygen is the most likely one. Have a look through your available packages and look for the styles for Openoffice - they should be with the rest of the Openoffice packages

Yes, kind of. But you are wrong in a fundamental thing: neither OpenOffice nor Skype are Gnome-ish apps. They are not even Gtk+ based to start with.

OpenOffice rolls its own toolkit, which has nothing to do with either Gtk+ or QT. Skype *is* a QT application (not a KDE one though, that's probably why it doesn't pick the KDE theme).

Pure QT applications can be configured using the "qtconfig" tool. Run it and set the theme there.

For OpenOffice the thing is a bit more complex. OpenOffice has the capability to use your system Gtk+ or QT theme, the problem is that it tries to autodetect your environment. You are probably using Xfce, which is the Xubuntu default desktop. Xfce is Gtk+ based, hence OpenOffice is probably detecting that and using your Gtk+ theme to integrate better in your desktop.

You can force a given desktop for OO though, via the OOO_FORCE_DESKTOP variable. To do a quick test just fire up a terminal and inside launch openoffice this way:

If it works as desired, then you'll have to set that variable in whatever the relevant place is in Xubuntu. You can try with a line like this in /etc/profile, but I know nothing about Ubuntu nor its default shell.

Then reboot and see if the effect is now permanent.

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Thanks for the OOO tip. It looks fine when run with the FORCE_DESKTOP prefix; I've added it to .bashrc and it seems to work.
On the other hand, QTConfig gives a very limited set of themes and none match the one which is used by KTorrent, Krusader etc. (and Openoffice with the above command).
Skype gets its theme from the settings in this tool though.

I guess I need to "force desktop" for skype, guayadeque etc... if only they all had handy environment variables