Background colors

Hi guys,
Pardon me for asking such a newbie question but the other threads I’ve looked through have not resolved my question. I have my wordpress site set up and would like to begin customizing it.

The first place is to change the colors of the background surrounding my site and the background of the content.

See my website here so I can explain better: http://www.newyorkforgore.com

The blog and sidebar are over a white background and then there’s a grey border and more white beyond that. I have my hex codes waiting but whenever I try to replace them in my stylesheet, nothing happens. I’ve copied the code I’ve been trying to modify if that helps.

body {
font-size: 62.5%; /* Resets 1em to 10px */
font-family: ‘Lucida Grande’, Verdana, Arial, Sans-Serif;
background: #d5d6d7 url(‘images/kubrickbgcolor.jpg’);
color: #333;
text-align: center;
}

#page {
background-color: white;
text-align: left;