how about switching the colors with the white, so there is white on both sides?

I had the same "too much contrast" issue with a strip quilt I was making in basically the same colors as your batiks. What I did was to tea-dye the blocks so that the stark white turned to a soft beige and coordinated much better with the autumn colors.

Your batiks are gorgeous. I like the tea dye idea.

Tea dyeing would be my solution also.

This came to my mind too but I want you to realize if you tea dye the plastic little thingies on the white will stay white. Also some white on white fabric does not take tea dye well. When you launder a tea dyed quilt you will loose some of the tea dye every time and you might need to re-dye it.

I think that the two light colors in the first round of the "dark" side are too light. The beige one especially would be the color I would choose for the light side. Whatever you choose will work however.