Suggestion!

I have a suggestion for your layout.

You have the gradient that I believe is default for the premade layout you are using.

1. I suggest taking that out and replacing it with either the color being used for the border around the forum and putting it there. That way, it won't look nearly as strange that you have images as your category titles since the gradient won't be behind it.

2. Otherwise, I suggest taking the city landscape that you have for the category image, making an image that is either tileable (pattern) or long enough to get across the forum (you can edit it so the navigation bar (home, help, etc.) is a solid color aside from what the rest of the title bars show, so you don't have to worry about making it the width of the banner). That way, you can just have that across the board without it looking strange that the category title bars have images that do not completely match up with the forum.

You can also go into the Home Advanced Layouts and edit the category title's fonts and whatnot from there with html/css, so you can stylize the category titles while everything else (the sidebars, out affiliates, etc.) are different from the rest.

Just a suggestion, but it will make the forum layout look cleaner.