When choosing an exterior paint, make sure you take into consideration which way you house is facing, which angle the sun travels above your house, and also the weather seasons as well. This can actually make or break your exterior paint job to your house, as this is a highly expensive and time consuming job, and can ultimately effect the value of your home in a negative way. You may have to go down the road of trial and error by just painting a very small area of the exterior of your house and examining during the day (and year) to find out what suits well!

Hi Caz Your house has a lot of character. To freshen it up I would look at painting it white. Resene Triple Black White. It's a beautiful soft white but not creamy. The red guttering, which you decided not to touch, I would paint a grey with a green edge. Perhaps look at Resene Half Gravel or Resene Tapa. What I'm trying to do is find a dark colour that blends with your existing roof colour. For all the beautiful fillagree work, (what appears to currently be painted a shade of yellow) and poles, use a paler neutral with a green undertone like Resene Ash/Half Ash. If you want to accentuate the details on the poles or those corner pieces, you can double the strength that is used on the poles i.e. If you used Resene Ash, use Resene Double Ash. Have a play around and decide what colour intensity you like for all the details but don't go too dark, just so you can see a contrast. I think having the beautiful red tiles on the porch is fine and you don't necessarily need to keep the red on the guttering as it is drawing the eye to look at it. That scheme will freshen the house up beautifully. No pictures of front door but a glossy dark grey colour, similar to the colour in the porch tiles will tie it together. It will look beautiful. Would love to see more pictures.

Without knowing roof colour , I'd go a slight apricot or peach tone . It is never going to look modern or trendy , I wouldn't go dark , I would keep away from anything grey or even surfmist or similar , again blues , greens , reds won't work IMO . A warm white sort of might work , but not only will it be boring , it risks looking like a school building or worse . Embrace the 60's , try and add gardens and something with colour like a large glazed pot or similar , even a nice fence or $150 letterbox or something , if you are wanting to look like you care .

It has a sort of Tuscan/ Mediterranian vibe , and I like most of the features ( that chimney design is clever , for example , and the way the paving is wearing is great ! ) . You say about red trim , but to me it looks like a reddy brown , which suits . The bluey greeny board doesn't suit , and doesn't go with the roof either ( I assume the roof is all those charcoal tiles ? ) . Ordinarily , I'd say to lighten the render and go with a darker board -- probably charcoal , but then thats just a continuation of the roof . BUT I like the weathered vibe of the existing render , and I like how the windows etc works with the render too . So here's my 'easy' improvement -- leave it mostly as it is , but change 2 things . The downpipe and collector near the door ( the single story one ) I'd change to genuine copper ( not just paint ) ; and the barge board around the top I'd change to either crisp white ( the safe option ) or a metallic coppery bronze -- that references the downpipe but also ties in and transitions between the render and the tiles . A bit riskier , but IMO worth trying .