Mel,
A number of ways to do this with probably the easiest being:
Open your skin1/skin1.css file and add a line thusly
Code:
.HomePageText { COLOR: #000000; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; FONT-SIZE: 12px; }
There are many other style elements you can use to control your text layout but that is a basic example.
Then wherever you place your text, encapsulate it with span tags:
Code:
<span class=HomePageText>This is my new home page text</span>