I generally have several terminal windows open, and like them to have different background colors. I wrote this script to automatically rotate background colors as I launch new urxvt terminal instances.

#!/bin/bash
##
## rotate background colors in succesive launchings of urxvt terminal
##

## The preferred colors, and how many there are
colors=( "#ede1bb" "#dadad0" "#ffffdd" "#ced9d3"  "#a8a892"  "#ffe0cc")
ncolors=${#colors[*]}

# Keep track of most recent color choice via this file
COLORFILE=~/.colorchoice
if [ ! -f "$COLORFILE" ]
  then
    echo COLORCHOICE=0 > $COLORFILE
fi

source $COLORFILE                             ## read the most recently used color
                                              ## choice is an index into the colors array
let "choice = (1 + $COLORCHOICE) % $ncolors"  ## increment previous choice, modulo ncolors
echo COLORCHOICE=$choice > $COLORFILE         ## update global state
urxvt +sb -bg ${colors[$choice]}              ## The +sb option kills the scrollbar