problems creating a table in page

I have created an About Me Page in which I wish to have a table containing bio text on the left and an image on the right. I have uploaded an image of a certain size to my media library. I’d like to be able to manually set the size of the image, the width of the table and both of its columns, and the cellpadding and adjust until I like the look of it.

Having several problems doing this. First of all, it insists on setting the table at 100% page width, shrinking the image to a postage stamp size and filling up the rest of the space with the overly wide text column. Secondly, the vertical alignment is all screwed up. I think this is all due to the overly controlling style.css

How can I override these issues (without ruining the otherwise nice look of the Vantage template as a whole) and create a narrower table of say 60% page width, two columns each 50% width of that, and an image of appropriate size?

I’ve tried creating custom table code in the css, without much success. Maybe give me an example that will work? Thanks in advance!