Kill two birds with one stone and replace the balustrade with a full length, double sided cabinet. This will blur the height difference between the rooms while creating more if a sense of the two rooms working independently of each other, and provide a place for interesting piece or two on the top(like sculpture). In the process, you could ensure the traffic flow and furniture of the rooms works best with the passage to the lounge where it is, and if not, decide where it works best and build the cabinet either side of the passage.

consider a comprehensive front landscaping solution that takes the attention away from the building to the garden/external elements, with repetitive and layered planting. If you want to go further bagging the brickwork and/or just painting it with a contemporary grey would certainly give the whole thing a significant makeover. This photo/project below was a 60's cream brick monster that we managed to tame/control a few years back - you could do get similar result with yours with just strategic cosmetic and landscaping investment - good luck :)

You say this is a 1990's house . Its made to look like a 1930's house at present . To make it look 'modern' would take a lot of work , and IMO destroy the character of the house . Embrace what it is , tidy it and change the focus slightly , but personally I wouldn't take off the scrolls and those little posts , or even the walkway roof . Just my opinion , but if you want modern , you sell what you have and buy a modern place in grey on grey on grey , with charcoal -- there are more than enough unique points on this house that you either embrace it or you sell it .

Funnily enough , I think the whole house already looks too dark , and I think the bricks and the roof are actually a good base , but again just personally , the windows used to close in the garage I would have liked to do in say surfmist or silver just to lighten things up . Maybe not for good reasons , but the lighter concrete below those windows is the first thing I noticed -- I realise it will presumably get covered or painted , but I noticed it because it is lighter in tone . The green fence doesn't help , and I'd do it in charcoal , which might sound 'silly' with what I said about the windows , but to do just the fence in a lighter silver or white or off-white would look 'weird' -- you want the house to be noticed , the fence less so . So what else ? Maybe a bright front door , or even a natural cedar or lighter -- make it a feature , at present it just blends/blands in . Maybe 2 or 3 large bright orange or yellow 'ali baba' glazed pots with vibrant spikey plants , bamboos , etc positioned right along the front -- large pots at least 60cm x 80cm to get noticed ! Just my thoughts .