I love painted brick. We have two walls of it in our sunroom addition (used to be the exterior of the house) and it looks great. So I'd definitely try painting it first and see if you like it. You can always drywall over it if you don't. But you aren't limited to white, you know, if you want a different color. Ivory, putty, taupe can all look great on a brick wall.

I also have a couple of 30 year old pine dressers. I recently painted the smaller, more battered one white, with navy blue drawer fronts and changed out the wooden knobs for porcelain ones. The other dresser was in better condition, so I left the top and legs as is, but painted the rest matte black. Looks great with the original brass hardware! Very pleased with both, so don't feel like you have to work around the pine for the rest of your room.

Thanks Anne and I will look at pale grey given the maintenance considerations. I have already paid for a colour consultant who was great but the Reckless grey she suggested for the house render and basalt gutters/fascia and front wall were too grey when we had the render samples put on and while it had a modern look, it was not giving the beach/coastal feel. I will head back into our inspirations paint store this morning to see if I can find the warm grey colours that have the most similar colour make up to Dune, and go from there. Anne you don't happen to know the dulux colour most close in composition to Colorbond Dune so I know where to start? Thanks again and I would love to hear from anyone who has got a dune roof and hear if they tried light coloured gutters and what render colours they have used on their walls.

Do you want modern or classic look. China white for classic it changes from grey-to light greenish colour I have it in the same facing room, or for more contemporary try Big white from Taubmans , it's a white with a bit of grey in it very soft. With your grey sofa I would stay away from darker greys and north facing room can make it really dark in the afternoon.