Just so y'all know, that picture of my room is when it's all cleaned up and organized!!

Don't plant the giant bird of paradise in this small bed. Fantastic plants and have used them at our house. They will grow so big and destroy your paving. I have also used clumping bamboo and my wife hates it due to the mess it makes. Constantly dropping leave etc. Would not plant near a pool for this reason. Another negative comment. Bougainvillea should never be planted in the ground. Lovely flowers but get our of control, dangerous spines and almost impossible to kill. Keep in a pot and keep trimmed. We put Xanadus next to our pool at our holiday house. Perfect size and clean. Consider other ways to hid the fence. Perhaps some type of bamboo screening??

Hi Louise, hope you are settled in your house now, it looks lovely. Having lived in a house with a west facing living area I'm sorry to say your rooms will get very hot over summer and even if you install air conditioning you will still need to minimise the sun and heat coming into the house to save on electricity. Stopping the sun reaching your rooms is the ideal but outdoor blinds can look ugly so ultimately it comes down to looks -v- comfort. Thermal blinds or curtains will help keep the sun and heat out considerably but they do darken a room as well. Fans will help with air circulation but you do need cross ventilation to help the house cool itself especially if you get breezes off the water. I think your bedroom would be enhanced by a covered deck to add some character to the house too and this would certainly help with the sun in that room. Another tip is the colours you use in these rooms will help improve the look and feel of the room, I found soft blues or aquas made a huge difference with a lot of white for freshness. Neutral colours for some reason just did nothing and made the rooms look and feel hotter.

My darling mother never had money for "decorating" and I can't remember anything new as all belongings were made up of a collection of cast off, second hand and recycled bits and pieces that she scrubbed and polished, repainted and recovered but it looked and felt warm and inviting and the house and garden were always full of flowers. Her pride and joy was the Moroccan tile inspired splashback that she made out of some old wrapping paper, carefuly cut to fit and varnished to make it waterproof...meant to last only 'til she saved up for real tiles it was the starting point for the colours of paint and curtains and cushions and rugs and was only reluctantly replaced years later when the paper finally disintegrated but, nothing ever looked or felt so perfect...many more years later i think of her when I have to decide between a loved old piece of junk and having the option to choose something new and i'm afraid the scruffy usually wins