Like micgosta said it is best to use a repeat background/gradient (which can still be cool, check out http://bgpatterns.com/) Then wrap your main content in a div which shouldn't be very graphical...

try an image map with javascript or you could cut the image up and use it for links, if you want you can div that whole page, put it lower on the z-index so that it automatically takes less...

1st thing: LEARN CSS (http://w3schools.org)
then you will be neater and menus will work so much better, then, get a new template and do it all over again