Can I put my header banner in the logo area and make the header area transparent?
 

Id' like to be able to create a band of space between the header and the body of the page. Can I do this by putting my header image in the logo area and adding %logo in the Config Header Area, and then somehow making the space where the header normally would be transparent (and narrower) so that the installed background shows through?

The idea is to get the header to appear as though it is floating separately from the rest of the body.

In a similar vein, can I do the same thing with the main horizontal menu so it looks something like this: http://www.living-sober.co.uk/

Thanks for your support!

use %bar1 or %bar2 in the header configuration

I see how that adds a menu bar to the page, but is there a way to get the floating effect I mentioned above...space between the header banner and the body of the text?

%bar1 and %bar2 and a bar that you can style - so you could make it transparent

What did you mean by this? Were you suggesting downloading a menubar plug in? If so, any suggestions? Thanks!

Go play with the styling of bar2 look thru the theme options and you'll find the area to style it. Make it transparent, give it a height, put %bar2 in different locations in the header configuration. Experiment and learn.