I've been having issues with my interface (messed up colors, menus, and so on). i have deleted the .gnome folder, .gconf, .gconfd.
Some issues are still there especially with ambiance theme, I could get it fixed by installing some alternative ambiance themes (ambiance-blue, ambiance-red, etc).
The issue that I cannot fix yet is the color of dialogue windows' text. the background is grey, the text is white. Where can I find such setting?
Open the gtk.css file in the theme's folder. You'll see 'fg_color' line. Change the color to something dark like "#000000"
Install gnome-tweak-tool and it has option to change theme,icon,cursor try it am not sure it might help
You can install other GTK+ themes and have a try.
themes folder can be at ~/.themes(personal setting) or /usr/share/themes(global setting)