Just wanted to know if anyone has any recommedations for openings on both sides for a beginner like me.  I know 1.e4 is best for white opening and that 1...c4 is best for black.  Also if white plays 1.d4, black should play 1...Nf6.  If anyone would like to suggest any other openings or variations of the ones I wrote please do.

You should not limit yourself to those moves!! There are a ton of good moves against those two, but 1... e5 against e4 and 1... d5 are the easiest to understand. They are symetrical, but they don't lead to symetrical positions. You shouldn't be so concerned with the opening, only study that when you know the middlegame well enough to know the ideas of each opening. 1... c5 is indeed a good defence to e4, but very complicated and if black doesn't know what he's doing he will get crushed by white's attack. Anyways, start with e5 and d5 (Nf6 is probably good too) and get some experience with that.

Really, i think the best think you can do is try different ones yourself following these rules

1. control the middle 4 squares, so each move should threaten those squares. (or try to stop your oponite from controlling them.

2. Develope you pieces. Get those pieces off the back row out where they can do damage.

3. Protect your king. What good is an offense if your checked all the time.

Just try stuff in new games, look for patterns you like. look at book openings to see if they look interesting. Most importantly look for things that work and why they work.

hope that helped.

 Thanks alot for your comment.  I have been studying on my middle game just wanted to get someones opinion instead of what some of the books say are the best openings.  Sometimes they don't put the beginner into consideration.

The reason they don't put beginners into consideration is because the book rihgt next to it on the shelf is called Chess Openings for BEGINNERS.

Anyway, stick with the basics (develop in first 12 moves, control of the centre, etc) until you have this sudden urge to try something new, that is when you should try something new.

well with white I recomend the queen's gambit 1d4 d5 2 c4, but you have to know how to regain the pawn if black takes. for e4 I would recomend the Italian, which I sometimes play myself 1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bc4 Bc5 and 4 c3 (to try to play d4 with a strong center). but of course, if you don't know how to take advantage of a strong center, you should learn that first.

I'd suggest the Colle System which is simple and basically has you as White playing the same series of opening moves in almost every game. Start with d4, then in some order, Nf3, e3, Bd3, O-O, Re1, Nd2, building toward e4. Often Black plays c5 bringing a response of c3 and a safe compact setup for White.