[balinor]

Well first you need to go from a 100% width layout to a fixed with layout. You can change the overall width of the site by editing rectangle_top.tpl.

If you want something to only be displayed on the home page, you should put the content in customer/main/welcome.tpl, or use an {if} statement.

Next, I'd alter products_t.tpl to get the featured products to show up the way you want them, and either alter dialog.tpl (the template that controls the blue box around the content) or remove the include for it in featured.tpl.