I had my house rendered last year. To decide on colour, I first drove around looking at rendered houses, to get a feel for the colours & tones I preferred. Then I used the "Paint Your House" program on the Dulux website. You can either look at their various "stock" houses, or upload a photo of your OWN house. Then, using their colour selector & painting program, you virtually "paint" your house, so you can see what it will look like when done. Once I'd narrowed it down to a couple of colours, I got sample pots in full-tint, half-tint, and quarter-tint. Painted sheets of papers with them, and stuck to outside house, so I could see what the wall colour would look like during various times of day / sun vs shade /etc. It was a bit stressful worrying how it would look when finished (since I went a deep ocher gold), but I'm thrilled with the result.

Your house is going to blend in very well with it's surrounds once the timber has silvered off, if you choose to use colours like Colorbond Woodland Grey, Dulux "Pavings Stone" (left hand side of colour swatch in the image far below) and/or Dulux "Grey Mountain". Other darker colours that will work well in this setting include Dulux "Cambridge Hall" and Dulux "Nomadji" (mentioned before). These greys don't necessarily blend in with the fresh timber but look fantastic as the timber ages and the building is seen as a whole (see image far below). "Paving Stone" is a versatile medium, warm grey that looks really good as a render. It also works well as a neutral internal wall colour in rooms with lots of natural light. In the following image, Dulux "Grey Mountain" was used near the timber work and "Woodland Grey" on the garage walls to help the garage door become less noticeable. Remember that colours generally appear lighter than the sample when applied to external walls and darker when applied to internal walls.

hahaha tribbletrouble...U kill me :)) No charge - every week they have a free consultant at my local dulux paint shop :) Question - Do you think Surfmist matches with Colorbond Dune ?

I really like colorbonds wallaby... they have some contrasting colours listed below... this might give a dark enough look without being too dark. however would you consider changing roof and trims first and then see how you feel about the brickwork? It might be all you need to do for an updated look. I'd maybe do roof and gutters same colour and then down pipes in a colour similar to bricks so not to stand out..., garage doors maybe the woodland grey?