Layout help...?

In trying to edit the layout, I find myself running into the following problem: I would like for the general aesthetic of the site to be kind of dark-ish, but I absolutely do not want the text of the blog postings to be white text on a dark background. Ideally the sides would be a picture of something, but I would definitely like for them to be a nice dark blue color and the middle not to be. Any ideas? I can't seem to figure anything out...