Three specific customization questions (menu bar, page content, background)
 

Hey all,
I just discovered atahualpa today and I must say I'm amazed! It's more flexible than Thesis, which I paid good money for...

Anyway, since I have no coding background whatsoever, I'm struggling with some of the settings and I hope someone here can help me out. I've used the search function to find answers to most of my questions, but I'm stuck with some of them. Here's what the page currently looks like: Link

I have three very specific things I would like to change:

1. I would like the background, only at the sides, to be a different color (Area marked in red here). Also, I've seen some atahualpa sites where there was a shadow effect along the edge. How is that done?

2. Then, I would also like to change the backgound color of the page itself, in between the post containers (or whatever those are called). Area marked red here. I can change the color, but it covers the header background image when I set it up.
EDIT: Okay, I think I figured this one out.

3. Can some padding be added around the tabs of the menu bar? And can the (inactive) tabs have a different color than the background of the menu bar?

Help with any or all of these questions would be very much appreciated. Thanks! :)

there are lots of places you can change the color in this theme, just do a search of the forum with the word 'color' and you will see some of the way you can style your theme

a quick search of the forms should also get you to the answer for spacing the menubar.