How do I color primitives?

I know this seems very newbish, but after playing with the program for about three weeks, I still haven’t been able to figure this out.

I’ve been able to figure out how to make geometric solids and translate and scale them, but I have not been able to figure out how to color them. I have some solids I would like to color, but I can’t figure out how to color them. I haven’t come across a tutorial that teaches me how to color an objects. At the moments, I want to color about 6 tubes, 3 cubes, and some other shapes.

For instance, I’m trying to make a “mock” camera. I want the rectangular plane (LCD screen) to be black. I want the camera to be silver, and not so gray. Also, I want the extending lens to be black.

http://mega.element.googlepages.com/mock-camera.blend

http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Blender_3D:_Noob_to_Pro/Materials_and_Textures

Awesome. Thanks.