I looked into the child theme route but couldn’t quite achieve what I was after on my own. Are you interested in some freelance work? You can send an e-mail to contact at jmonkeyengine.org if you’re interested.
I have another (small this time) tweak inquiry for ya as well: How can I make the forum always 1-column? I’m talking about the way you move the right-side profile section centered above the post content on narrow screens. I’d like that to be the case even on wider displays.