Background of sidebar to expand to the left - html

Question

I am trying to get my left sidebar to expand its background color to the left, while keeping my "layout" in the middle of the page.
Illustration:
My problem is that the div.container centers the layout (which is good) but I can not seem to get my sidebars background to expand the left horizontal and vertical space to the left.
Is there any with a smart trick on how to achieve this?
Currently I have this so far:
<div id="app" class="container">
<div class="row">
<div id="sidebar" class="col-md-3">
<h2>Sidebar / Nav</h2>
<p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.</p>
<p>Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur.</p>
</div>
<div id="main" class="col-md-9">
<h1>Main Content</h1>
<p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.</p>
<p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.</p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
And CSS:
html {
height: 100%;
}
body {
background: url("http://j.eremy.net/examples/stretchy-sidebar/bg_body.gif") repeat scroll center top rgba(0, 0, 0, 0);
height: 100%;
margin: 0;
padding: 0;
}
#app {
height: 100%;
}
#sidebar {
color: #fff;
height: 100%;
}
#main {
background: none repeat scroll 0 0 #d9cead;
height: 100%;
}
See my currently example and problems here: http://jsfiddle.net/gaLc9/

Answer 1

Check if this can help you
HTML
<div class="outer">
<div class="cont">
<div class="left">Test</div>
<div class="right">Right</div>
</div>
CSS
* {margin:0}
.cont {
width: 940px;
margin: 0 auto;
background: #fff;
position: relative;
z-index: 2
}
.cont:after {
content: " ";
display: block;
clear: both;
}
.left {
width: 200px;
float: left;
min-height: 600px;
background: red
}
.outer:before {
content: " ";
z-index: 1;
display: block;
position: absolute;
left: 0;
top: 0;
background: red;
width: 50%;
height: 100%
}