I like the bricks and their texture My advise : fill the gaps in the bricks with more mortar use either white or natural in colour keeping the lines as straight an even as possible I think I was on the boral website the other day and they had a link where you could play around with different cladding and mortar Paint the beams in with the ceiling and add as much white/China white/antique white paint as possible Alternatively go to Pinterest search colour palettes or colour combinations You will definitely find some unreal colour ideas there Libby rip out the carpet and see what's underneath if concrete get it polished if timber do the same

THANKYOU all so much for your input!!!!Its been so hard to get my head around...but its confirming for me the look and the relaxed feel that we are trying to achieve.I don't think we could go far wrong with whitewashing or painting the pine, which will once again lighten up the space..just painting the roof has made a huge difference. Lexicon is such a great white!!!!Yes I am considering art work to bring colours together and also the brick wall colours..... Thankyou also for the pics...so helpful!!!

I'll stick my neck out and say I love painted brick, especially when not in overwhelming proportions, so I think your house would lend itself well to this treatment. I can see the brick on your house painted in Surfmist - I believe it would totally transform the feel of your house. I love what you've done so far. If you do paint the brick though I would paint the garage door the same dark grey of the wood trim. Jon n Kate Miller are right - if you paint brick you have to be committed. Also don't take short cuts on surface preparation but if done properly there's no reason it shouldn't last as long as any other painted surface.

@Lizzy B all went smoothly. the most time consuming part was installing all the battens into the brick followed by corner ends. This was harder because I cladded not only the wall shown with the 3 windows but also the whole front of the house which includes multi steped recession into the front door meaning lots of internal ans external corners as you will see in this next photo. most people would usually just paint this recession to door area rather than clad it because of how fiddly it is and so many short cut boards but i decided if i was going to do it, I would do it all prroperly. it all still looks fantastic and as if i did it yesterday.