Sue, congratulations. You've not only identified a colour you feel happier about, you've actually created it. I suspect you'll now be able to create a pleasing mix of warm greys, plywood browns, stone tones, coppers or bronzes, warm whites, etc; maybe with a bit of yellow added come spring; and you'll be able to live with the brownish sofa until you're ready to update or reupholster. I have some KAS cushion covers from a couple of years ago which show how this kind of colour mix can be done. One has stylised flowers (a la Mexican) in grey, brown and caramel with a touch of burnt orange. (You mention liking ochre.). Another is lighter grey, brown, taupe and bone-white on a natural linen. A third (less subtle) is warm greens with brown, taupe, yellow, white and a little aqua. I'm not saying go for styles that are a few years out of fashion. But do be confident enough to resist a harsh, hard-edged option if a gentler one is right for your temperament and household and the room's aspect. Robyn

I love all this feed back - thank you ladies & gents :) I do think the light and flow would probably work better like oklouise's first post - I concede you are both right. My concern was the depth of the shower - we have a very pokey one at the moment but think I see how to rectify that - tell me what you think? Also I want LOTS of storage and think keeping the storage in the activity with the entrance now up the other end would limit the furniture layouts so I would probably keep that in the entrance hall and still use the nook as is - no doubt they will sit there to do their makeup as the light will be amazing BUT i can imagine the mess will not - haha! I LOVE those doors siriuskey- so grand and impressive but my husband is a lay in bed TV watcher so that would possibly take up too much wall space for his liking - again I giggle ( you have to right?)

I like the look of the outside of the house , and initially I wouldn't change the yellowy beige colour . What I would do is get the concrete block retaining wall either rendered in the same colour as the house , or if the budget ran to it -- get a genuine stone facade . As far as gardens to soften the look , I'd stick to the meditarreanian theme , and do a couple of 2 metre tall green leafy plants in wooden round planters ( half wine barrels or similar ) , and maybe a long , slim garden ( 4 or 5 metres long by 40cm wide ) with marigolds or similar .

If you need to achieve a home generally along these lines, seriously, don't bother trying to customise some form of layout with a drafty or any form of designer. Practically you have little choice but to try and find something suitable with an off the shelf plans, (or version of) available with one of the volume building companies, some of which can be quite helpful with working through this process, but you have to accept a certain "formula". It's the only way to achieve something of this scale for that type of money. For what it's worth, generally you'll find most draftspeople have no idea about designing to budget - it's not what they do. They are a technical drawing service, nothing more nothing less and unfortunately over the years we've been doing what we do, we've had countless of examples of projects come into the office that have resulted from people trying to get a draftsperson to design something to budget thinking it's a cheaper road, only to be bitterly disappointed once the builder has come in and delivered the bad news, and then they're back to square one & we have to pick up the pieces somehow. This is why it's so important to have a robust discussion about budget limits as the first part of any conversation around a building project, to minimise wasting time and money going down path that will prove to be somewhere down the line unrealistic. Good luck! PD