I think painting the walls lighter and brighter is the right move but don't be restricted to white necessarily - although that would be the safe option and you know for sure it would work! You could introduce a contrasting colour on the ceiling if the walls were white obviously dependent on your furnishings and other colour choices. How about a soft grey or "greige" as an alternative to the white? Finally, you could introduce a dado rail at approx 1m from the floor - painted white the same as cornice and ceiling and then paint the upper and lower sections in contrasting colours of say charcoal on the base and white above or 2 shades of the same colour.

Hi Maria, we love the wood but it is a little overwhelming in that space with the timber floor. A liming white is a great idea as mentioned by a few people here. This will let you have the best of both worlds, a lighter, brighter finish while still allowing the wood grain to show through. You could try Feast Watson Liming White Floor Finish (yes, it's not a floor but it has the size of a floor!) and build up the number of coats until you are happy with the amount of timber grain showing through. You'll probably need to give it a light sand first as it's most likely already got some type of coating on it. The other option would be to leave the walls as is and consider a large, light neutral coloured rug as pompom suggested on the timber floor and perhaps a good sized piece of art on the wall or white wall shelving instead of the dark side unit you have to reduce the amount of timber in the room.

I would keep the balustrade but paint it a very dark grey but not black. Get a really nice feature front door, maybe something moderne or "P & O" style, paint it yellow to make it pop. Install a new window , suggest louvre window, but make sure the frame is in a light grey. Remove the fibro and replace with Eco clad in the vertical ship lap profile. Paint the walls in a warm light grey, including the red brick below. Make sure the Eco clad is slightly proud of the brickwork so it creates a small shadow line, like a belt. Plant out the base of the walls with some suitable natives. You might find the book "the Fibro Frontier" by Historic houses trust press worth a look. Yes, this is ubiquitous Aussie suburbia, the style is often referred to as Post War moderne, in a very loose sense. It's classic 1950s style project home. It may be a Hudsons Ready Cut. Hope this helps Sarah, studio renew

Thanks for all the comments - appreciated. To answer some of your questions; 1. I am also wondering if it is possible the verandah is not original? Can you tell? Not sure, looks original. If the red bricks weren't there, then it's probably more Edwardian? 2. There any internal paneling to lower section of walls? No 3. The bay window is a decorative feature, but are any of the other windows double-hung? No 4. You might look to the neighbouring houses to get a clearer indication of style of your house as often they will share common design features. Do you have any original documentation or plans for the house? No. The street is mainly Cal Bung(double front with heavy posts) and Edwardians. From the comments, it sounds there are overlaps in style. The overall style looks Edwardian but the porch with the red brick posts looks like a smaller version of the typical Cal Bung heavy posts. The question is what does a single front or 1.5 front Californian Bungalow look like?(Do they even exist?) I've only seen double front Cal Bungs with heavy posts.