The boxes on the lefthand side, although nice and colourful, conflict with the lines of the forum menu i e. they don't line up at all and cause the page to look too 'busy' and cluttered. It needs streamlining somehow. I guess the boxes are too bulky to put across the top instead of down the side. They would be too far out of view if you put them across the bottom.
I think you need some of the gold background colour to appear on the menu to carry it over. If you had a light cream background to the forum you could have the gold colour where the darker grey bars are now, maybe. The red and the gold go well together.
__________________
Mother Bear 
|