Hello @leeswilson,
To have white background you need to add simple custom CSS through Customize section of the theme.
First Go to Dashboard -> Appearance -> Customize -> Themes Options -> Advanced Options.
In this section will you find an area to add Custom CSS:And add below custom CSS.
//This CSS is for content and the blog posts or page content.
.content-area {
background-color: #fff;
}
//This CSS will change side column colors as you have mentioned
.sidebar .widget {
background-color: #fff;
}
Hope this will solve your problem.
Feel free to post if you have any confusion on this.
Regards,