For a red-brick period home from the early 20th century I would consider James Hardie's Scyon Linea Weatherboard, which looks like the old fashioned timber weatherboards, (but without the maintenance issues and the cost) as the cladding material for an extension. Avoid rendered lightweight construction as it is inappropriate and too contemporary for your home. Look at your existing external trim colours, and the trim colours of other houses of a similar age in your area for colour inspiration. Best of luck, Dr Retro of Dr Retro House Calls

considering Weathertex comprises of 97% hardwood it arguably complies with the covenant as technically it's achieving greater than 3/4 of "timber materials".... that's the angle I'd take anyway ;) PD

Hi, firstly congratulations on your decision to renovate. How exciting. We are nearing the end of a major renovation and choosing the exterior colours was a real sticking point. Most of the houses around us were built in the 1990's and my renovation had the potential to not quite fit in. I had to use a timber cladding to match the existing cedar but the original had been poorly stained and I was never going to get a cohesive match between old and new. I was left pondering my choices. The solution was to paint both but what colour? In the end, I looked at what of the existing was going to be left unchanged. It turned out to be the Karaka Green window frames - not my favourite colour - but in order to work with it I had to pray I didn't offend the neighbourhood. I didn't want the old dirty brown shade and a thousand testpots later, left me with only one really obvious answer. As you can see from the photo, I chose [quite radically] to paint the entire extention in Half Karaka green. It's still a work in progress and in the coming weeks, the rest of the house will be painted to match. I waited for the neighbours - particularly, the old people from the Rest Home at the end of the street - to tell me off for my choice but have been blown away by their reactions. Every last comment has been a major thumbs up. Even the painter - who was highly skeptical - apologised for his doubt, Don't automatically assume your neighbours are going to hate seeing the changes you are about to bring to the area. Which brings me to your planned renovations. I am assuming that your window frames are also going to remain the white colour in the photo. Rather than get all confused about greys etc. Start with them as the basis for the rest of the house and work out from there. If you do that, then I don't think it will be as difficult as it currently seems for you to pick what the rest of the house will be. Don't be afraid to spend money on purchasing test pots. They are around $4 or $5 each and I believe that I probably spent $200. It was worth every penny to me to get a few small off cuts of cedar painted and sit and look at them alongside the existing windows in order to make an informed decision. Good luck. I look forward to seeing some finished photos. I hope to post my finished renovation photos here soon.

Dont rely on google images, they are heavily edited and inaccurate, definately order swatches for accurate comparison. Below is a photo of Dulux Elements powder coating swatches which I have in my office - in the photo you can see (and from my own perspective of this colour) up close Surfmist is definately not 'white' but search the images on the web and yes it looks white (FYI first colour is 'Basalt', second colour 'Surfmist', third colour 'Black' and fourth colour 'Monument') Below also is one of my company's recent projects, chairs in Surfmist and tables in Monument, but looking at the image you'd swear it was 'white and black'. Before you decide Id suggest getting the actual powder coat swatches from Dulux which you can order via their website and then you can compare them and decide. Note: Colorbond Surfmist / Monument and Dulux are the same tone. Good luck!