Whatever you do never plant a gum! They have no place in suburban areas! The sooner the council realises that these trees kill people the better! We have had two gum trees fall on the back of our house now, one in 2012 and one in 2014. We are so lucky that myself, my husband, three children, three dogs, five Guinea pigs, two parrots and one bearded dragon were not injured. It's just a miracle not once but twice! I still don't know how we escaped unharmed. The gums do not have a stable root system and they grow very shallow, they get to the point where they just fall over. And the scary thing is they fall silently. They are not called 'Widow Makers' in the bush for no reason. I like the Tuckeroo tree, not sure of scientific name. They grow with a straight trunk and keep their foliage in a straight and symmetrical line along the bottom and grow hiding their branches. Essentially they look like a large mushroom. They are green all year too. I think they get to about 6 metre or ten if they have to reach for the sun.

I like the look of the whitewash walls - its clean. But the 3 hanging pots on the wall don't work for me. It would look better with nothing. Also the pots in the right hand corner are the wrong colour - they clash with the aqua of the pool water. Red or orange would work better here and be more in keeping with the period of the home. Even more aqua would work better. More big pots on the LHS also. But I would leave the bricks alone. Once you change their colour, you will have ongoing maintenance. If they ever need to be repaired or removed, then is the time to change the colour. A small evergreen tree would give you vertical accent in the right hand corner where the pots are. Its all too low and sameness.

Don't know your budget but if it was me I would get some big pots or long - thin flower beds and plant some golden cane or bamboo. The golden cane gives you a nice green screen and looks nice with low maintenance. You can break up the pots with beds of colourful small plants e.g. agapanthus, bush lily etc . For lighting you can light up the beds or pots with outdoor spot lights that can also be solar. Wrap underneath the top wooden hand rail or along one of wires below it some warm light rope light. It's led so little energy consumption. My issue with a outdoor rug is that if left uncared for, water can stagnant and start to smell especially between the rug and the boards. The last thing I would do is get or build a new outdoor set. Styles and designs you can go through pictures in houzz and how to make stuff on YouTube and Pintrest.

Looking at your photos I noticed you have lots of little artwork scattered here and there. They don’t look right at the moment . If group all of them in a gallery like formation on the wall above your dining table you will have a focal point. There is no need for a frame on each wall, just one focal point is enough. Also there seems inadequate amount of storage in the kitchen, you could add some wall cabinets maybe in different colour to add a bit of interest and height to the room, at the moment everything is on same level. I realised you didn’t ask opinion on this but anyway I don’t mean to offend.