I saw an almost identical rug to your picture at Ikea last week, don't know how much though sorry. They also have a chunkier weave which is very nice - 2m x 3m for $150. You could buy 2 and lay them together for a very reasonable cost. I was wafting through Ikea in Brisbane but I am sure their stores all have the same/similar stock. Hope this helps.

Thanks everyone for your further comments. No problem about it being an old post, always nice to communicate with people about design solutions/problems. Jilly, I posted some photos on 1st January 2016, they appear further up in the post. Garden Beet Pty Ltd, and Morel Construction Ltd, both of your solutions look great, but our problem still remains the western Queensland sun which is pretty vicious on anything that will either wilt, fade or break down. It was quite a difficult challenge to come up with something that was affordable, workable and durable. I would love to have had plants because I believe they soften large "hard" exterior areas, but we have decided that we will do that with pots around the pool area. Still have that to do, even after all this time. :) Thanks everyone for re-igniting this chat. Jilly, hope you find something that works for you.

I work in tiles and a trick you can use is to lay the tile horizontally on the 'narrow wall'. This gives an optical illusion that the room is wider. These tiles at around $50 each can certainly add up so a wise use would be to use as high impact. In the ensuite use them behind the bath for the whole wall. Use white wall tiles for the rest of the walls. If you want to add more colour, tile the spa box in an colour tile that exactly matches the blue or grey from the pattern tile, use a matching grey tile on the floor instead of white. Or use the pattern tile behind the spar, make the rest of the room white and add a matching grey vanity. It's a lovely tile but may become a bit gaudy if you have a bit here there and every where. Again with the main you will probably not get an exact match with the outer room timber floor and it could look like you tried to match it and couldn't better to go for a complete contrast. Use the same tricks as the spa bathroom and don't forget matching blue towels for a bit o colour. Hope this helps.

From your drawings I leaned towards squaring off the arches but seeing the house IRL I say keep them. Being raised from the road and the way the house is perceived to sit into the land, they look great. There is a graciousness to the arches which you don't often see in houses of this era, I think it because they are not uniform. I would look at the Spanish Mission style homes in Palm Springs for inspiration and keep the roof tiles rather than go colourbond too. You can still do a version of beach just more Spanish mission hacienda style!