I need to set up a website that looks a bit like this one: http://www.hubspot.com/products/

Is there a way I can keep the menu options in the container area but extend the background colour across the entire screen (whatever resolution it's viewed at)?

I did think perhaps I could create a background with a grey strip at the top and white below but I can't work out how to stop it from repeating.

Any help much appreciated!

The site is at http://www.aliwp.co.uk/

For the repeating just use the proper CSS repeat property. You can find that info on many places such as w3schools.com

I dont really want it to repeat though - I want the grey bar along the top of the page and then white the rest of the screen (however far you scroll). So how do I do that?

It needs to repeat horizontally but not vertically so you would use repeat-x in the background code.

Thanks - that fixed it!