I feel like you don't see a lot of vertical setups here so I wanted to share what I've done so far. I found having everything at the top was way too dense so I moved it to the side but added a second panel at the top in a different color (to go with the wallpaper) for the window buttons.
Hey OP, you can't post this without linking us that cool wallpaper.
Sorry about the wait. I kept forgetting to post it when I wasn't on mobile!