It’s interesting you mention this . . . . I was looking through the JA template library just last night and re-discovered a couple of templates that, when origianlly released, hadn’t really caught my eye. However, in looking for a specific look/feel (or, at least) starting point for what I want to accomplish), I found the following templates to actually be quite versitile along the lines of what you are talking about . . . . specifically – JA Iris.
Bottom line – it’s worthwhile to take a little bit of time to go through the library and, perhaps, re-discover a template you (like myself) may have overlooked previously. Even if the displayed demo version isn’t exactly what you have in mind – remember, you can always modify things to your heart’s content.