Think about consolidating the colours - currently you've got red brick, reddish brown down pipes, white window frames and door, grey cladding and cream garage door and fencing. The minute that you reduce the number of colours it'll look better - as fencing is a pain to paint, I'd paint everything that isn't cream or brick to cream. I'd also pull up the white stone pebbles and replace them with a pebbles the same colour as the house or cream ones.

If you can afford to build out where the front door is to give yourself a patio/deck that finishes level with the furthest forward part of the house and then extend the roofline out which will give you a cleaner roofline, this will give you a front outdoor living area as well (oh, and if your front is west facing - keep part of your home much cooler). Use a timber that ties in with the brick so that you keep your colour pallet for your home simple.

Pull up the pavers, they look like they've been plonked down any old way - and replace them - if you can do a deck extension you could also do a slightly raised walkway where the pavers are to give your front a raised area that you could either do a shallow water/dry waterway feature or planting feature to add interest.

The minute that you can get your hands on the place, look at the garden - putting in a tiered planting near the house and look after the lawn it'll also make a huge difference (aerate, seed top dress and feed). If your tempted to re-turf at some stage think about under lawn irrigation - it's eco friendly, not intrusive and will give you the best bang for the water you're using.

Good luck!

Wow, thank you for that!

The pebbles will be the first thing to go - I'd be replacing the ones in the center of the driveway with those concrete drive grow-through squares if possible.

Another thing I considered was possibly ripping out the door and windows and putting a much larger door in its place - that will hide the out of place cladding a little more.

Patio/deck is on the cards too - however that may be down the track as extending the roof will likely be out of budget. I love the idea of running a slightly raised deck where the pavers are!

You're more than welcome - if any of my ideas are helpful then I'm happy.

With your driveway, I love the look of plants/grass in the centre strip - just be aware that parking your car over it can kill it off. If you're at all concerned about that, think about replacing the white pebbles with red/terracotta ones and low growing succulents.

I like the idea of ripping out the door and windows to replace them with something bigger and would think about moving the door to one side so that you get a bigger window. If the furthest forward part of the house is all one room, I'd even be tempted to open that up too and then think about brick/stone cladding where grey cladding is now to ground the house.

Looks pretty cool! Love these era houses.

I would add a pitched veranda over entry, say 1800 deep then with the rest a pergola out to be in line with the front of house. Use a hardwood with an oiled finish rather than painting. Just have it at the same pitch and height as the existing rooflines!

The face brick looks super cool so keep it as is but repaint the windows and cladding (and roller door) in the same colour as guttering.

I would focus on the landscaping in particular the fence which I don't think really suits the era. Have a Professional Landscape Designer come in and come up with a design to suit the house. There are some uber cool mailbox's around that would look great. Check out the ones on 'suburban essentials'...even if you don't need one......

Oh I think your house has lots of potential! I like the basic shape of the facade. What I don't like is the colours, they're not bad but there's too much going on and as georgi02 said as soon as you reduce the number of different colours it will look better. Then there's the entrance, too many little things, little steps, a little garden bed, little windows, what's that, a little awning with another even littler window? It needs to be visually simplified and strengthened. I like the ideas from MB Design & Drafting and georgi02. I also noticed the sub-floor vents, of course you need to have them, but why do they look so obvious? And the landscaping, well planned landscaping can enhance a building so much.

My immediate thought was that this is a house that needs a tree in front, near the verge. And probably a hedge . Definitely a new fence. My next thoughts were similar to above - get rid of the steps and put a deck on the front. Extend roofline when finances permit.

I love all the ideas!
Looking to put an offer on it tomorow, so fingers crossed.

As finances permit, build a nice deck out the front and extend the roofline to cover it.

macymacmaples was on the money I think, too much happening in the front. First order of business will be to remove the clutter and simplify the colour scheme.

I'm liking the idea of tearing the door out and putting in a larger doorway - maybe replacing the cladding with some kind of wood or stack stone?

something like this?

Oh wow!! It all looks great. With the planting, just remember that such a manicured hedge will take a lot of work and a steady hand when trimming it - if one plant is slower growing than the others or dies it throws your whole hedge off (we inherited a Hebe hedge that the previous owners had tried to grow in this style and failed so we had several weekends pulling it out in favour of a more casual row of rosemary and lavender, which was far more tolerant of a lazy gardener like me and doubles as culinary, medicinal herbs and insect repellents - did I mention that I want everything in our garden to do double duty if I'm going to be looking after it lol).

Yeah you're right - The hedge is probably a bit of a pipe dream. Looks great but reality is I'm not going to be able to care for it properly. Some other shrubbery or maybe something bush grassy might be better.

Threw this together - VERY rough but shows what it would look like with a nice front fence.

Looks brilliant! Your neighbours will be looking on with more than a little envy!

We have a similar home that we have done a makeover on. Have a look for inspiration...

City Beach Home Improvement and External Makeover · More Info

City Beach Home Improvement and External Makeover · More Info

I would leave it as it is, it's really cute. Just do the garden up a bit, some palms maybe. don't modernize it, it will lose it's charm.

I'm in favour of the entry update/deck with cladding painted off white.

The use of conifers is very midcentury, so a big yes.!

Astro/fake turf is taking off here in Qld, Council even approves it for the nature strip. It is popular in new developments.

Front fence-I'm in favour of a midcentury style aluminium horizontal slat fencing. see pic.

A great looking place. Congratulations on your purchase.

I actually really like this house . If budget is a serious factor ( which it usually is) go for staged redecoration.

Stage one....paint and render the whole house a Mediterranean white ( not all whites are equal!)

Stage two.....garden....all conifers go well. You can use them to accentuate shapes or complement . .

Stage three....front door ( if still doesnt work for you)

Stage four.....fence at front, grow a creeper on the right hand fence and make sure that fence in front is height of next door hedge. If you don;t want or need scrappy lawn, plant whole front area with dry climate plants...succulents, hebies, mixed grasses etc. . Just widen that front path.

Stage five...Patio ideas.

what a great house! but make sure you invest in improving the inside to make it comfortable for yourself as well and my old mum always said if it looks too good from the outside you encourage burglars to think you have things worth stealing!!

Thanks everyone.

Not really interested in rendering the bricks at this stage, the cost is far too high. We'd spend 20k rendering it and still end up with a weird doorway and no awning!

wuff - that doesn't sound too bad for maintenance. I'll keep that one in mind, I'm sure I can manage a trim every now and then.

deewb - I don't mind that fence design, I think I prefer real wood instead of the aluminium though (or the fake wood print aluminium even). I mocked it up using photoshop.

oklouise - thanks! thankfully the interior has a modern kitchen and bathroom, new floorboards and new carpets. Overall the interior is quite nice, just the exterior looked a little dated. Its a quiet little street so hopefully that means I get to keep my possessions.

Thanks Wuff, I'm not really coming up with the ideas - only selecting the one's I like from here and putting them together!

When I first saw the house I hated the facade, after the mockup I threw together I am really loving the place. We've put our offer in on Saturday and now we're just waiting for the agent to call and let us know what's happening. I get the feeling he might try and squeeze a little more out of us - but hopefully not and hopefully we end up with the place!

It's great, all you need to do is paint everything (doors and widows and cladding etc) in a dark charcoal .It would look good with the red brick and give it an architectural look.Two stunning pots in front of the red brick would look great , just keep it plain and simple.

Belinda Arbon you are speaking my language. I am in the process of removing a hedge and I want to replace it with native grasses!

Also, I love the work other Houzzers have gone to here to help out Mark Lloyd.

Makes me happy.

well we just went and signed the papers - its under offer now.
Time for the fun to start.

You could also add some potted plants across the front of the house instead of planting.

A great option may be an artificial hedge as they won't take over at all, and last for a long time!

View the range here; and we are very happy to chat also on 1800 617 341 to look at how we can help

Congratulations Mark! I really like the drawings that you did up with the new door and deck at the front. It makes a huge difference to the house. I think the all grass look at the front is a bit much. It would benefit from some sort of pathway to the deck, but I don't have the imagination of the other Houzzers, but I love what you have done so far.

Old post from 2015