Gosh this is an old thread, lucky I'm still attached to it. Sorry Susan, can't help you, the Houzzer is in the US and they have different brands to us and I've also learned even if the brands are the same, the colours aren't necessarily the same. Did you check out the brand Luke posted? I believe Luke is no longer with Houzz unfortuantely. Personally, I would never touch brick, it is a timeless product and usually messing with it only results in more maintenance over time, where natural brick is pretty much maintenance free. I also read the other day red bricks are coming back in again - there is always a cycle if you wait long enough. My old house was red brick and I had the green guttering, roof tiles and such but over the years the roof tiles lost their colour and went grey. When I sold the house the new owners painted all the guttering and outside trims charcoal grey. As much as I hate grey and am over the constant use of it, I have to say it really looks great and gives new life to the bricks. Maybe this is the way to go with updating facades, just change trims to the current fad colours, they need painting regularly anyway, and leave bricks to the natural cycle of trends.

Thank you all for your comments. Well, it's been a few months since my original post and we have since finished putting up the retaining wall and planting the hedge. We decided to go ahead with Murrayas - planted about 34-40 cm apart. I gave them a good trim about a week after planting at the end of Autumn and another quick trim at the start of Spring. They have really filled out in warm weather and I think the gaps between individual plants should close by the start of winter. I'm really happy with the choice - the hedge looks glossy and lush and the sweet smell of Murraya flowers is just beautiful. We didn't do any underplanting, but I'm still thinking about putting in the dwarf agapanthus for the inside border. A couple of weeks ago we planted some Rhaphiolepis "Snow Maiden" and Rhoeo along one side of the retaining wall to provide a border for a footpath and I'm really happy how it turned out.

Aside from how you want your kitchen to function, you need to consider what depths and hues can do for a space. Basically if you have high ceilings, darker cabinetry for your overheads can really draw the eye upward and highlight the feature but if your ceilings are standard it can feel heavy and encroach the negative space. Lighter overheads will reflect the light so the negative space will feel larger. Dark colours are also used to create depth in a room, to draw it back further visually. In my opinion darker lowers would work if you like the two tone look, it will break up the light flooring. Keep in mind you don't have to use colours that are contrasting, try pulling samples together that are a few shades deeper in harmonious hues, much like your picture provided. When it comes to the splash back you can opt for a texture in similar colour family to create interest without adding too many colours. Perhaps a penny round, hexagon, hand made subway or the same stone you choose for the benches. Don't stress about paint colours right now as there are thousands that you can choose to complement your kitchen. Hope this helps!

I'd just live with it, paint the walls and vanity your sage green. My decision would be based on the fact that getting rid of the pattern is either going to be extremely time intensive or $$ intensive for not much gain. You can leave that pattern and update the bathroom easily by painting walls and vanity. The only way to get a nice finish on painted tile is to have it resin coated professionally. It's not cheap. With a stone toned bathroom it's always going to look dated because that colour way has been out of fashion for about 30yrs anyway. Best to just update cheaply and refresh the whole bathroom once it's no longer servicable. You spend on average 30mins a day in the bathroom. If it's neat and clean that's good enough. Close the door on it after use.