A couple of things from me. Firstly, the cornice painted a yellow makes the ceilings feel lower than necessary, paint them out white or as per tour ceiling rather than accentuate the highest perimeter moulding, you don't want yo draw attention to the highest detail not being high! Secondly, to make the room feel fully addressed the window has to be looked at in context of your room. The house style is important, but more so the room space and light. As you have a verandah you probably have in direct sunlight, but the room is not large, so i would try to make the window feel part of the bigger picture rather than contrast with it. Which is what the red does, effectively looks like a red rectangle dominating a small wall. Do the opposite, taking colour cues from the room will make it feel unified, therefore bigger. The caramel carpet, for me is where I would draw upwards from. I suggest a rattan roman blind, the texture and stiffness will resolve that terrible sag, let in diffused light and provide a natural element needed in country style schemes. It allows the scenery to stand out, and colour is easily built upon it. If you need further blackout, you can install a uv cheap roller blind within the window frame, which would be hidden from view by the roman blind, so it can remain up most times and the roman can frame the beautiful view, allow light and then use the roller as your night privacy blackout blind. Most Romans look best as a frame treatment, they dress the window better than they function on them. Shutters would also be stunning with their play and filtering of light, but costly. And just a tip, your bed would feel far more luxurious in that space if it were not heavy in colour, the metal and timber, both which are not genuine as in fake cast iron and artificially stained orange pine date your space, that is not a dig, just an observation. You could do an upholstered bedhead for a luxurious look that a linen would tie in with the soft furnishings, you can address colour in many ways, but the blinds, carpet and bedhead should be neutral unless you can afford to upgrade often?.. A layering of texture and tones rather than colour is far softer in a country space, that's why it's done often, creamy whites on a caramel carpet will really brighten and freshen that space, , timber lamp bases, fabric shades, plush pillows and personality pieces, you'll have a space you can't wait to get to. I hope this was helpful!

Hi everyone, well the good news is my house is having the pictures taken tomorrow morning ahead of the first home open. Thank you all for the advice offered and shared. In the end I had to keep to a low budget as its unlikely I'll get it back in the sale price. What I want to do it MOVE it quickly, as the market is poor and we are heading toward Christmas. The first 30 days are VIP. So I did the following; -exterior eaves, guttering paint - whole house interior wall paint (grand piano quarter) and one ceiling - carpet throughout from Harvey Norman - verticals, as other spotlight/ikea options did not fit. I needed to have these made. - new lightfittings - remove exterior rotary clothes line, put an Aldi one that comes from one wall. - cleaning of pavers with high pressure cleaner (my new found friend) - cleaning of kitchen tiles and grout with toothbrush, gumption and patience (gumption is also my new friend) - new shower screen So there we have it! Thanks again for your help and colour suggestions, and multiple suggestions to CLEAN. This CLEAN priority cannot be understated. I considered staging the home however I believe as it is modest and first home buyer home and a new migrant market, it wasn't worth the spend. Fingers crossed!

Suzy, I'd confidently say the problem for you is certainly not necessarily your style, but rather, the sequencing of the process and decisions involved.....Great results can be and are achieved with any style, but the trick is to be consistent and understand the priorities/limits/constrains and a certain level of discipline needs to be executed with the decision-making accordingly. Great results exude confidence and balance, regardless of style. Often this is the difference between professional and amateur level in that professionals (having experience/skill developed etc) are generally able to hone in, filter and execute the order of decision making with a certain degree of confidence and purpose in a manner that achieves balance and consistency with the numerous/various elements involved. Most issues stem from people starting to think about the wrong things at the wrong time in the process and getting the decision making all out of whack - hence making a less ideal or less balanced decisions within the overall context, and ending up with underwhelming results that didn't quite work out as hoped or what you had in your head. The classic one that I always come across is when people say "do" their kitchen all on their own because "it's not that big" or important, and then I get a call to come (say a year or two after) once they decide they want to do work to the rest of the home and pull it all together somehow. More often than not though they've clearly jumped the gun and spent money/started at the wrong place and so then its harder job to hit the mark of the overall vision, so we either have to undo stuff (expensively) to pull it all back on track, or concede/compromise the end result by accepting to spring off a less than ideal first stage of work...... The other typical one, which is kind of what you've described, is people wanting break it down because they think it's easier to get their head around a smaller scale job, and pursuing projects in bits and pieces/stages.......more often than not you get fragmented/inconsistent results.... and this somewhat is the downfall of technology/current times with people absorbing fragmented content/pictures and then focusing on doing things as snapshots, rather than taking a holistic/masterplan approach to a full scope of works (which takes thought, planning, patience and investment), with the layered understanding of what decisions are the most important over others and when and how to make them. We just can't achieve consistent results like say is suggested can be done on the Block ("hey it's bathroom week, next week we're doing the back patio" - how ridiculous!) - and the camera angles are sure deceiving compared with the real life experience of walking through the end results..... it's just not how quality, consistent project result are best achieved in the real world....it may work for TV or achieve pretty snapshots for the instagram feed, but it doesn't achieve consistent & flowing "living" experience throughout a home where spaces relate to the next etc, unless of course you have a certain degree/level of experience, skill, discipline and clarity to be able to make it all eventually come together........... These issues are relevant and applicable across all scales of project, whether we're doing complete homes or just say an outdoor kitchen or interiors etc - the process/decision-making is the same but you need to have a vision, references and clarify constraints and be clear and confident for each decision that the next one is influenced/determined by. This is the design process and it takes time and experience to master and understand in depth to achieve professional level results demonstrated in magazines or online etc. ... But of course this is just my particular professional opinion/perspective...everyone from their own views/thoughts on this stuff ...more often than not it comes down to money/budgets, which all too often the limitations in this regard coupled with info/resource online at fingertips lead people down paths of false economies by bypassing seeking critical advice early in the process... :) Cheers PD

I love Marie's respect for the things we have, and her practice of thanking the things that don't actually bring us joy for what they have taught us (eg I don't suit that colour or if I don't like the feel of something, I don't end up wearing it). Her system does not generate a lot of rubbish; there are always people that will love the things that don't suit us and will be grateful to be able to buy them at a good price at a charity shop. I have found her philosophy hugely helpful especially for sentimental items which I don't love but felt I should hang on to. She has changed my life!