As first chickens you'd probably be best off with hybrids of some sort. A modern brown hybrid (ISA Warren, Gingernut Ranger, Bovan Goldline) is a friendly, good laying chicken. It's basically a Rhode Island Red/Light Sussex Cross. They lay light brown eggs.
Black Rocks are very hardy, not quite as friendly but better layers imo - a bigger, creamy coloured egg. They stand up to the rain better and I think lay for longer.
Anything leghorn based (eg White Star) will give you a white egg - they can be a bit skittish though.
Amber Stars are beautiful - white chickens with flecks of brown. Similar to the brown chickens in laying ability/egg colour.
Speckeldys are maran crosses and give a dark brown egg. They're pretty friendly too, and look lovely.
Have a look on this page for some pics - this is where I got my two goldlines from.
If I were getting new chickens now, I would probably go for more of a mixture - I have 2 goldlines, a speckeldy and a black rock. When it comes to the time to get a new flock, I would ideally like a gold campine for white eggs, an amber star a Fenton Blue or cream legbar for blue eggs and a wheaten maran for dark coloured eggs plus maybe a black rock and a bluebelle. That's my wish list!