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.

Wood and white is timeless. If you don't want to replace the cabinets, just replace the doors. Having said that it looks like the kitchen was originally custom made and replacing the doors would cost a few thousand. Perhaps start by choosing your floor colour and type. Floating floors are incredibly durable and come in fabulous finishes.please avoid shiny faux wood tho, this can really cheapen the look. If you have to keep the tile floor at least regroup it to match in with the style and cover most of it with an island. I rebuilt our kitchen using IKEA flat pack, the quotes ranged from $35k to $30 k. I spent $4,200.00 inc the oven and I now have the option to replace the doors and draw fronts anytime I like. They also use Blum steel draws with soft closing options which are the best quality any kitchen maker can offer, only at a much cheaper price. This room is desperate for an island bench with either seating or outward facing shelves or cupboards. To answer your question you need to decide on what style the rest of the house is or will be first. Is it contemporary ? Traditional etc? Choose your base colours, materials etc there first, then look at your kitchen. This can make the process easier. If there are small children in the home durable doors that are easy to clean is the first thing to consider. IKEA and other companies make a vinyl wrap door in gloss that's easy to clean and takes a lot of "man wear". This again will limit your colour choices. Personally I love charcoal for the lower doors and draw fronts with frosted glass or white for the upper doors, timber floating shelves. Counter tops in faux concrete stone for a contemporary look or white faux stone with a fleck have become the new classic choices. Choose a classic tile or material for your splash back and don't rush this, it can be done at anytime. Take the splash back to the ceiling and loose some of the overheads along the back wall to open the room up. Replace with some floating timber shelves all finished in 2 X pak or resin epoxy, never use just polyurethane in wet areas. Overall first think about your textures that you love and then let that help you choose your colour palette, no more than 3 X colours for your kitchen. If you go with timber finishes, always match your wood colours in the shelves, counter tops and floors. Have fun and remember this is your kitchen, you have to live with it so follow your gut when choosing colours and finishes. I like to ask myself when choosing a material, "will I still like this in 10years time?" If my immediate answer is yes I go with it and use it as a starting point.

consider crushed granite, gravel or brick paving...concrete is more expensive and can be very hot

Hi JV, I think unless you are planning to do a huge facelift to the home, I would just embrace the retro feel rather than trying to mask it and have it looking too random and shoddy. I actually think the cream brick at the sides is quite cool, it looks in really good shape, I would definitely leave that! And the trellis, I just think you can't fight it as it's all the balustrade too. Replacing that with glass will just look like a 70s home with bad out of place glass added. I like your timber idea, though I'd just go a regular cladding rather than decking which will look... well like decking on the wall! Get a cladding (Even a Scyon style product), paint it a light charcoal (or even a dark olive/khaki colour) and it would look stylish, retro and actuallypretty cool as I'd expect from an IT guy. Add some plants (mother in laws tongue, a crassula, another succulent) in a few pots of varying heights (say 3), add a stylish outdoor light, maybe a plaque wiht your business name, a cool doormat, remove the screen door and I think it would look great. Look up mid century modern references, there's a lot. Even though it's not mid century, you could stretch to that. I think it would look far better than trying to mask what you've got and have it come off as looking really amateur.