I agree. The proportions are really award and not intuitive to view.

Here is a screenshot: http://imgur.com/IQT71nd

Maybe if check to see the proportion of user's screen and adjust the layout to a side by side vs top and bottom.

At the moment it's always 35% of the viewport (-56px of the header) leaving more space for the actual content. May I ask what is your screen resolution?

I really like it on iPad and generally in vertical form factor, but the 99.9% of users are pure ol' horizontal desktop..