Hi Lisa. Are you just wanting entry lighting ideas, or for the whole house? And the height or your ceiling is what? Agree would be helpful to get an idea of your house style, plus your own personal style, likes & dislikes. Also, some lighting retailers have someone on staff (interior designer) who knows about lighting design, so perhaps check ahead and talk with them.

Hi Rachel, the staff at Studio M should all be trained colour and design consultants. Take your ideas to them (all your pictures) they should be able to put together a scheme that works with the ideas you have in your pictures. If possible please ask them for samples of the products you have chosen. Don't let them pressure you into making the final choice on the spot - tell them you would like to think about your final choice before you sign off on anything. Take the design plan away and look at it again after a day or so. Your wood floors do not have to match the wood in your kitchen, but it needs to be the same tone/hue (eg light or dark) - what wont work is if you have a grey timber floor then use a brown timber in the kitchen. Classic styles never date when choosing tiles, and choosing one colour. I'm not into matchy matchy, so your bathrooms and kitchen do not need to match, you can bring one element into all rooms to form a connection eg, timber, subway tile. I find that clients who have pictures of what they want make it easier for a designer to help them choose finishes. Good luck

Hi Erika, First up I will proclaim my disdain for render. This is not because it is inherently bad finish, but there is some much poor render and render look products that crack and an look so cheap it has now colour my view of it as a finish. Make it brick if you want masonry or make it weatherboards if you want it to feel lighter. Depending of the form a mix of both can work well also, but be careful how this is done. Masonry to the external skin is inherently wrong in a hot climate (that is most australian how get it wrong with brick veneer). By place the masonry to the external skin, means it heats up all day and the can keep the building warm all night. Handy for a cold cold climate, but you will need insulation on the internal side to avoid heat loss, thus never really benefiting in a big way from this anyway. Try placing the brick skin to the internal face and you will get the true value from the masonry for its thermal qualities and cladding this with a lightweight material to the external face, shading it from the heat. You will also need to insulate between the cladding and the masonry to avoid heat loss as masonry is not a good insulator. Not even a double brick wall with that has the internal face exposed will meet the minimum BASIX requirements for heat loss in NSW, not with out additional insulation in the cavity. OK, stepping of the soap box for a moment to actually answer your question more directly. Weatherboards - Can look great, you will need insulation in the walls anyway. If not put it there anyway, It's a cheap product and make allot of difference to the comfort of the home in hot and cool climates. There will be maintenance that comes with weatherboards, paint them properly with a quality paint system and you will not have to do much for a long time, skimp on this and you will be back regularly. Render - also can look good, if you spend the dollars and get it done well. This will cost more. You will still need insulation and the masonry will warm you home through the night in the summer. It will also require a level of maintenance, but depending on the finish this can be very minimal. Weatherboard will be cheaper, unless you a building a project home and the scale of economies they get can skew things big time, particularly if you are only looking at a bagged brick rather than full render finish.

The following floorpan will fit onto your 30 x 10.5 block, and I would love to it along the L boundary as much as possible. without knowing orientation of the block? This is just an idea, sizes can be changed, Laundry and Powder Room can be swapped but if using the front living/ office for business, working from home which will become more likely even after the lock down ends if you listen to Zukerberg from Facebook that's what the plan is within the next ten years Opening/ventilating /auto sky lights will be needed but not necessary in both the family bathroom and Laundry but not necessary in the Powder Room. Sky lights open to allow any hot air to escape, you can have internal or external blinds fitted, external blinds are better for heat control, internal for keeping warmth in. The garage is shown with two single doors, one onto the open Porch and another possibly into the front Living/Room Office. The kitchen has an added ceiling height pantry at the end of the island with a bookcase backing onto it facing into the family room, the pantry makes a nook for dirty dishes and cleaning up. All bedrooms have private access which reduces noise from the family Living Kitchen activities. The Master suite has glass sliding doors for light into the entrance and for a bit og glam. My floorplan is drawn with 100 walls for both interior and external walls, wall size will impact on the overall size of rooms and Squ M