Hey Paul, check out a place called ecooutdoors.com.au for inspiration. I'm not sure if they're up your way but I'm sure you could get materials shipped. They have such a beautiful store with brilliant ideas. I'd be considering a stone that is cool under foot on hot Brisbane days and at least 30mm thick. You have an oval-ish shaped pool so you might consider a small coping stone to replace the brick then move on to a larger stone instead of the dated pebble, maybe a 'cush' limestone or go a bit glam and do a herringbone pattern with the right stone. Good Luck.

I'm not an expert, but we have renovated a pool and made 1 big mistake. We had similar coping that formed a big hob all the way around (unlike yours). We leveled it out with paving (and then coated the pebblecrete with an epoxy sandstone-look product). The mistake? Part of the yard sloped down to the pool. Every time it rained.....all the sand, dirt and debris from down the side of my house and around the pool went straight into the pool. If we had our time over- we'd leave a small hob around the side of the pool where the land sloped down. Yours looks like it is on the downside of your house with some garden. The hob might be there for a reason.....as we learned.

what's your climate, will you ever want to roof over the pool, are there any external doors along the back of the house that need to be excluded from the pool area, is there an external door for a quick dash to the bathroom from the patio and garden without having to go through the new fenced in pool area, are there any trees that will become a future problem for the new pool?? a rough site plan would help answer these questions

Hi, firstly congratulations on the new purchase. If you are on a tight budget then painting is certainly an option... you can do this yourself if you are feeling particularly DIY inclined or you can also have the doors and panels painted professionally in a polyurethane finish. Dulux does a great range of renovation paints that people tend to get some good results with. If you go the poly route bare in mind there will still be a significant investment required. Green cabinetry with timber accents would look great. Either a darker shade or you could look at sage perhaps, which is very popular at the moment. You could add some open shelving on the wall where the hanging scales are currently positioned. White is also an option as its timeless but everyone has a white kitchen. If you're going to renovate and this is your home for the foreseeable future dare to be bold and add some colour in your life :) Timber benchtops would be lovely but they are very expensive, especially at the moment. You could however add a timber top on the island as a butchers block type feature and update the back bench with either an engineered stone or a laminate. You could add in some brass or black handles and depending on how far you want to go update your tapware to match to finish the look. Good luck with the renovation!