My thought is to follow advice often given here by raising a number of straight-run chicks and select the cockerel(s) I like best out of the bunch. I'm considering the following breeds:
Delaware -- Large, attractively patterned birds that grow rapidly, are well-adapted to heat, and lay good-sized, medium-brown eggs
Australorp -- Large birds that grow rapidly, are well-adapted to heat, and lay good-sized, medium-brown eggs. Possibly less visible to hawks than the light-colored birds.
French Black or Cuckoo Marans -- Large birds, attractively-patterned (cuckoo), with dark egg genetics. Feathered feet.
Black/White/Blue/Splash Ameraucana (Cackle) -- Medium birds, blue egg genetics.
Since all chickens are awesome in the hatchery catalogs I'd appreciate feedback from people with experience with these breeds. Especially if you live in a hot, humid climate.
I suggest you buy 2-3 cockerels of each of those breeds, and plan to butcher most of them, as you find reasons to dislike one and another--the one that bites you, the one that grows slowest, the one that's mean to the hens, etc.
I suggest you also buy 1-2 hens of each breed, because then you can learn what hens of that breed are like. When you know which hens you like best, you can hatch their chicks the next year, and maybe order males of that breed next.
White eggs look good in a carton of mixed eggs, so I would add a few Ancona hens. But you have a point about getting lighter colored eggs in later generations--just do not hatch any white eggs, and that will not happen. (And a few white eggs in a carton make all the other colors look even darker by comparison.)
It would be easy to breed Easter Eggers in colors you prefer:
Black Australorp rooster plus Easter Egger hens gives mostly black chicks.
Cuckoo Marans rooster plus Easter Egger hens gives mostly cuckoo chicks.
Delaware rooster plus brown or red hens gives mostly white-and-black patterned chicks.
From all of those crosses, most daughters will lay green eggs, but a few may lay brown eggs. If you cross those daughters back to brown-egg roosters, you will get about half green egg layers, and half brown egg layers.
So you could get a few Easter Eggers, put up with colors you don't like for one year, and then breed Easter Eggers you like. (And you might get lucky and find colors you like among the purchased Easter Eggers anyway.)
