Graphic design - elegant backgrounds

The idea is to have a menu or a side - tab appear as having a slightly distinct background from the main area (which is black, in this case).
On a large scale this is probably too distracting, but could work nicely to create background for menus or small divs with a side-tab.

I've tried different color gradients just to get a feel of how they stand out against this background.

So, this is how to do it:

1. Start a new file, bucket-fill it with black (or a color of your choosing).
2. Apply a noise filter: In Gimp: Filter > Noise> HSV noise

Play around with the variables until you get speckles that are refined enough and appear as adding a subtle texture.

3. Add the gloss effect. Select the gradient tool (white to transparent) with transparency of 40% or so (you can play around with that), apply it to the top part of your square and then to the bottom, so that the lighter area is close to the edge and the transparency is toward the center.

4. Add a color gradient to a selected portion of the background. Use very high transparency - 10% opacity or less. The stronger the colors, the less opacity required.

Walla.