How to change background color of UINavigationItem?

You can change it through code...

For Objective-C:

    self.navigationController.navigationBar.barTintColor = [UIColor redColor];

Write Above line in viewDidLoad method.

For Swift:

    self.navigationController?.navigationBar.barStyle = UIBarStyle.BlackTranslucent

    self.navigationController?.navigationBar.barTintColor  = UIColor.redColor();

OR

    self.navigationController!.navigationBar .setBackgroundImage(UIImage .new(), forBarMetrics: UIBarMetrics.Default)
    self.navigationController!.navigationBar.shadowImage = UIImage .new();
    self.navigationController!.navigationBar.translucent = true;
    self.navigationController!.navigationBar.backgroundColor = UIColor.redColor();

You can change color on your own choice.

To change the bar Text...

navigationController.navigationBar.titleTextAttributes = [UITextAttributeTextColor: UIColor.blueColor()]

See the Link.... Here

See the above image... you like output like this screen right...!!!

One possible solution is to embed the View Controller it is containing the Navigation Item in a Navigation Controller and access to properties color of Navigation Bar:

// Color title 'navigationItem'
UINavigationBar.appearance().titleTextAttributes = [NSForegroundColorAttributeName: UIColor.whiteColor()]

// Background 'navigationBar'
UINavigationBar.appearance().barTintColor = UIColor.blackColor()

// Color title 'navigationBar'
let color = UIColor.orangeColor()
self.navigationController?.navigationBar.topItem?.backBarButtonItem?.setTitleTextAttributes(
    [NSForegroundColorAttributeName: color], forState: .Normal)

You shouldn't use the background property of UINavigationBar, but instead you should use barTintColor like this:

self.navigationController.navigationBar.barTintColor = UIColor.redColor()

As written in the official documentation to change the bar background you have to access to the barTintColor property:

The tint color to apply to the navigation bar background.

If you want to edit the style of the navigation bar such as button color you should access to the barTint property. If you want to edit the style of an navigationItem such as back button you should edit the button property, not the UINavigationItem's.