That seems a nice idea. If you need overlapping, then some absolute position must be done.
Set your footer absolutely to the bottom of the page and z-index:0. Then your content z-index:1 and padding-bottom: (footer height - desired overlap).
You can use sticky footer which I found a while ago in this question
I made this which works in Firefox, but I can't get it to play nice with IE 7. Anybody's help would be awesome.
EDIT: Made it work
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en">
<head>
<title>A CSS Sticky Footer with Overlap</title>
<style type="text/css">
body {
text-align: center;
}
.wrapper {
margin: 0 auto -142px;
position: relative;
text-align: left;
width: 700px;
}
.header {
/*Go download the header yourself from http://ryanfait.com/sticky-footer/header.png
Please don't steal the guy's bandwidth*/
background: transparent url(header.png) no-repeat scroll 0 0;
height: 160px;
}
.footer_bg {
/*Go download the header yourself from http://ryanfait.com/sticky-footer/footer.jpg
Please don't steal the guy's bandwidth*/
background: transparent url(footer.jpg) no-repeat scroll 0 0;
border: 1px solid blue;
height: 100%;
margin: 0 auto;
width: 700px;
}
.footer {
clear:both;
border: 1px solid red;
margin: 0 auto;
position: relative;
width: 100%;
}
.footer_bg p {
bottom: 4px;
color: #FFFFFF;
left: 0;
position: absolute;
text-align: center;
width: 100%;
}
* {
margin: 0;
}
html, body {
height: 100%;
}
.wrapper {
height: auto !important;
min-height: 100%;
}
.push {
height: 142px;
position: absolute;
}
.footer {
height: 142px;
z-index: -1;
}
#content {
z-index: 10;
}
</style>
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" media="screen" href="style.css" />
</head>
<body>
<div class="wrapper">
<div class="header">
<h1>CSS Sticky Footer</h1>
</div>
<div id="content">
<h2>A CSS sticky footer that just works</h2>
<p>We've all tried to use a <strong>sticky footer</strong> one time or another, but they never seem to come out right, do they? Well, the days of a hard to understand CSS-based <strong>sticky footer</strong> are thankfully over. In just a few simple CSS classes with minimal extra HTML markup, I've fashioned a <strong>sticky footer</strong> that even beginners can get a handle on. It's been tested in IE 5 and up, Firefox, Safari and Opera.</p>
<h2>Usage of the CSS</h2>
<p><q>Great! this is exactly what I'm looking for! Can I use it?</q></p>
<p>Absolutely. There are no terms, licenses, fees or requirements. Use it as you will. If you find the kindness to link to me on your site, I'd appreciate it, but it's by no means necessary. Have fun, and don't be afraid to ask me any questions or send me your thoughts.</p>
<p class="download"><a href="layout.css" title="Download the stylesheet">View the CSS</a> or <a href="/resources/footer-stick-to-bottom-of-page/" title="Make a footer stick to the bottom of a page">learn about using it</a></p>
</div>
<div class="push"></div>
</div>
<div class="footer">
<div class="footer_bg">
<p>Copyright © 2006-2008 <a href="http://ryanfait.com/" title="Las Vegas Web Design">Ryan Fait</a></p>
</div>
</div>
</body>
</html>