Thanks for the compliment!
I was struggling with that issue as well. I played around with some simple tricks and other colors, but I kept running back to mamma (the color white) because, to me, adding more color looked too busy. I tried a different color in the box above the jumbo thumb and I felt like it separated it too much from the thumb below. Those 4 boxes are all related and are really a single item, coloring one of the boxes felt like it was taking away from that relationship.
What looked best other than white was using a VERY light color (another light gray, yellow, blue, purple). But I preferred the white because it doesn't compete with the content. It's a judgment call and you should go with what you like best. It should be an easy thing to mess around with and I encourage you to do so.
A couple simple ways to add some more color:
1. Put 1 pixel link borders around some of the thumbnails and change the colors of the links. I don't know how much of a pain in the ass this would be, but you could remove the white box from behind the jumbo thumbnails and just have a 1 or 2 pixel border around them or none at all. To do that you'll need to adjust the width of all the other boxes or resize the thumbnails accordingly.
2. Change the color of the background tile. I'd keep that a dark color, probably purple. When selecting colors, use the header as guide.
By no means am I saying to do that. Just some ideas to play around with.
When selecting colors, they should be from the palette you're using (purple, blue, pink, gray/black). That red and green you're using doesn't really mesh with the color palette you're sportin.
The only other things I would do is put that dark gray box from behind the 110x150 thumbs behind the 120x60 banners too.
Thanks, but that's not necessary
Just happy to help!
No problemo