hahaha tribbletrouble...U kill me :)) No charge - every week they have a free consultant at my local dulux paint shop :) Question - Do you think Surfmist matches with Colorbond Dune ?

I'm personally not a fan of tile - very hard on the feet, I find - so I'd probably restrict tile to the wet areas and go for hardwood everywhere else. Our last home had wood in every room except the bathroom, and after 10 years it still looked fine. Even the kitchen looked good. That said, we didn't have kids running around in the house. Did (and still do) have a dog, though. Our current house has carpeting in the bedrooms, engineered wood in the living areas, and tile in the bathrooms and laundry. All three floor coverings have a similar greigish tone, so to my mind they look fine together, and meet the practicality and comfort criteria as well.

Thank you so much everyone for your great ideas, advice and uploads. I've decided on glass for pool fencing, Dune for render colour, but still undecided about front balustrade and handrails. While I love the idea of stainless steel, I'm still not confident that a modern look will suit the front facade. I keep coming back to the classic look in Lesley's pic but wonder whether white powder coating is the way to go or whether it would be too busy for my facade as I have stairs/handrails to consider. Still pondering over too many choices!

Go grey as advised above, don't paint window frames if they are metal but leave alone, plant sasanqua camelias along the side boundaries (they can be hedged) to screen out neighbours & add greenery plus colour, landscape the front. Don't do white stones as they look dirty after a while and are blinding in the sun. I'd get rid of the stones altogether. If you are a gardener, put in box hedging and some standard roses (yes, I know done to death but they are charming), or draw up something on paper first - play with shapes. A garden makes a house look good.