Thank you to all for the wonderful feedback. I didn't intend to paint the walls blue rather a taupe/brown - the De Sousa home is a great example. Since publishing the photo and the question - I have viewed many fabrics in many shades of blue and came to the conclusion blue is probably not the right choice. The photo looks beautiful but have moved to silver/grey with plum purple walls. But keeping the padded bedhead with demi lune side tables, an occasional chair in far corner and I already have the perfect bedside crystal tired lamp bases already. Again, could go very wrong with purple but I think I've found the perfect colour here in Australia. There are some stunning fabrics available in the silver/grey tone and I think it would well in the bedroom. The starting point funnily enough in moving to silver/grey was stumbling across the most gorgeous drape fabric. Then I built the rest from there. Now it's down to making final selections. A frustrating but fun process. Can't wait to see end result. Fingers crossed it all works out! Thank you once again - this site is amazing and your feedback is most helpful.

It is just a great patio beer drinking table with a great view:) I couldn't get a picture of the table and the view because I didn't have the room with just a camera phone but this is the view from the top of the patio with it:)

Lightening the mortar will look great and keep those lovely bricks as the feature of the room. Eventually a few other ways to brighten the room could be: lighter coat of paint on the walls & a tall indoor plant or wall art in place of book shelves (if you have another spot for the shelves that is). Gorgeous room - look fwd to seeing the before/after pics when you colour mortar. :)

Hi Amie, have you had a look at the Caesarstone website? They have a visualiser where you can select different bench tops, splash backs, cabinetry, floors and wall colour - it's fabulous for getting a better idea of how your kitchen will look :) I had a play with it for about an hour the other day lol ;) I found it amazing that the small sample colours, look totally different when applied on a large scale like a bench top.... definitely worth navigating around the Visualiser page of their website to see what you think will work best for you :)