I checked the basic look&feel class for tabbed panes, and found the following color properties:
TabbedPane.lightTabbedPane.highlightTabbedPane.shadowTabbedPane.darkShadowTabbedPane.focusTabbedPane.selectedTabbedPane.selectedForegroundTabbedPane.contentAreaColorTabbedPane.tabAreaBackgroundcontrolYou can set these as follows:
Now I don't really know which of these properties
you should change, but you can find out by
testing.