If your handy with CSS you can make the default nav menu do many things, and not need to manually build the menu.
Code:
a.NAVBAR_LEFT:link {background: url(back-1.jpg) no-repeat;}
a.NAVBAR_LEFT:visited {background: url(back-1.jpg) no-repeat;}
a.NAVBAR_LEFT:hover {background: url(back-2.jpg) no-repeat;}
a.NAVBAR_LEFT:active {background: url(back-2.jpg) no-repeat;}
That
might work to place an image behind the link text, with hover state, have not yet tested it. Then you simply design the image to look like it places you image in front of the link.
Or you can use different border widths to put blocks in front of text.
Got an example of exactly what your looking for?