One way would be to make a table structure that mimics the frame structure you first wanted.
Then, you're basically looking at a customization of customer/home.tpl i.e. figure out the parts of home.tpl that you want in the top frame, and stick them in the corresponding place in the table structure you came up with, do the same with the middle frame, etc. (back up home.tpl first)
E.g. home.tpl (in 3.4.2) creates the top banner like this:
Code:
{ include file="rectangle_top.tpl" }
{ include file="head.tpl" }
That's basically your top banner, so put that where you want it to appear in your table.
Once you have all components of the main page represented the way you want in your file, you can save it as home.tpl and it should work. You're just gonna have to play around with it, so back up all the files you play with.
I know this might sound a little confusing, I don't know much about Smarty either but I hope you're getting the gist of what I'm saying.
hope this helps.