For a first skin, this is pretty good.
On one of my sites, we have something similar to this as a main design (it's a vB site/skin), we went with this frame of mind: Simple Site, Simple layout.
I think that all this layout needs is a bit better play with the darkness in contrast to the lightness.
Also, (just my opinion) that glare over the word XenForo needs to be cut down in half so that is more on the words rather than above it.