Luddite mode for emacs gives a few extra lines, when the tool-, menu- and scroll-bars are turned off.

luddite-mode.el

;; first, remove all the crap that looks different from emacs 20.7.1
; luddite mode
(cond ((> emacs-major-version 20)
       (tool-bar-mode -1) ; introduced in emacs 21
       (menu-bar-mode -1)
       (scroll-bar-mode -1)
       (menu-bar-showhide-fringe-menu-customize-disable)
       (blink-cursor-mode -1)
       (windmove-default-keybindings 'meta)))

; toggles luddite mode
(global-set-key [f12] '(lambda () (interactive) (menu-bar-mode nil) (scroll-bar-mode nil)))

(defun toggle-mode-line () "toggles the modeline on and off"
  (interactive)
  (setq mode-line-format
	(if (equal mode-line-format nil)
	    (default-value 'mode-line-format)) )
  (redraw-display))

(global-set-key [M-f12] 'toggle-mode-line)