The next time I decorate by a colour of the year will be the first time. Don't hold your breath. I have nothing against this particular colour but it doesn't work with all the things I've collected over the years, and I am not about to discard carpets bought after hard bargaining with dubious merchants in Istanbul or Islamabad because they don't "go" with a paint colour that someone voted "colour of the year." In its place, I think the colour would be quite nice (better than this years choices, certainly). It's just that my place isn't the right place for it.

I am well educated in sleep science & assess sleep as part of mental health assessments. Good on you Vy (2017) re CCI www. I usually find people want to tell me lots about their poor sleep. After I have learned about their mental, physical health & lifestyle I offer advice to improve their sleep IF they want to know. Mixed results. Why? It is rare that people want to address their lifestyle, not least alcohol use. Most assume there is a pill available. I am not a prescriber so I don't have to enter that discussion. Why am I writing about this in Houzz? Bedroom design. Bedrooms are only for sleep, intimacy changing your clothes. Thus keep them plain, simple & DARK. Stop making them full of all the light you can get (small windows please for ventilation & easily darkened at night). Bedrooms are not for entertainment including all forms of media (Yes sleep apps are great) & family parties. Blue light in the 60 mins before sleep reduces melatonin by 50% speeding up dementia, cancer depression, anxiety, etc . Huge rooms are a waste of money since they only for 8 hours of sleep, at night, in the dark. The best news of all: increase anti-carcinogen, & reduce dementia onset activities, that only happen at NIGHT, in the DARK when you are ASLEEP for 8 hours. Sorry shift workers. Learn about this.

Sue, congratulations. You've not only identified a colour you feel happier about, you've actually created it. I suspect you'll now be able to create a pleasing mix of warm greys, plywood browns, stone tones, coppers or bronzes, warm whites, etc; maybe with a bit of yellow added come spring; and you'll be able to live with the brownish sofa until you're ready to update or reupholster. I have some KAS cushion covers from a couple of years ago which show how this kind of colour mix can be done. One has stylised flowers (a la Mexican) in grey, brown and caramel with a touch of burnt orange. (You mention liking ochre.). Another is lighter grey, brown, taupe and bone-white on a natural linen. A third (less subtle) is warm greens with brown, taupe, yellow, white and a little aqua. I'm not saying go for styles that are a few years out of fashion. But do be confident enough to resist a harsh, hard-edged option if a gentler one is right for your temperament and household and the room's aspect. Robyn

I do not know whether you could paint roller shutters, but, in my opinion, once you have painted your front fence in woodland grey, that would make a a big difference to street scape. There appears to be colour, similar to woodland grey in the shutters. If you then planted greenery in garden beds, this will soften the hardness of your stone garden. The roller shutters are not a 80/90 disaster, they are still very useful for insulation, noise reduction, sun reduction. That is why they were probably installed in the first place. Stand back once you have painted your fence, then re-evaluate. Good to read you are not painting or rendering your bricks. Just soften with planting.