Help needed, custom login page

I created a drupal 6.x site and wish limit access to content to authorized users only
I set the "access to content" permission of "authorized users" and it works great

The problem is that in my main page, before users login (unathorized) I get the login block
on the sidebar and I get the message "Access denied" in the content area..

I am trying to customize this page to display a nice message like
"Welcome to my community site, please login to see content..."
maybe display a logo or a picture..

I tried the front_page module, but I uses the same access rules as content
display the same "access denied" message to unauthorized uses when "access to content" is
set false for unauthorized users.

I tried the LoginToBegan module, the privacy_by_role which didn't work as expected
I even tried to override the "access denied" page
but that is not a good idea...

I think I am missing something basic, it seems like this is a common need a community site
that requires login to access content.. but I can't find a way to implement it..
any help will be much appreciated..

Thanks