Personally, I think the flared ends really suit the house. Are you looking to use a particular brand of paint / colour range? The colour of the unpainted render actually fits in well with the original building. Have you considered something from the same colour family? Lighter... Darker... Colorbond paperbark would probably go well with the sandstone and give constrast against the cream.

I would paint the garage doors, box in the white poles either in timber or stack stone or have them rendered to match the house. You could also paint the front door in a feature colour. The front veranda you could either paint the concrete, tile it or have a stencil done on the veranda and driveway also look at any added landscaping that could possibly be done.

Hi Kate, 3 birds renovation gave me the idea and products. So far the paint is holding up well and we like it. I was a lot of work, but much better than the brown frames we had. We still need to do the interior. We also only did one window with the spray primer but as it didn’t go along way we opted for a tin of the primer and it went much further! Great advice about the board. That will definitely help!!

ThAnks for all your comments. All good thoughts! I must clarify that as many 60s homes in inner Canberra have been built with a red brick base and a different top (in this case cream brick). In the period many homes also had the top rendered instead of brick. Although the cream bricks of mine seem charming , rendering allows insulation of the walls, which is helpful in the climate. The extra red bricks in the photo are for the footings in our back extension.