Q7) Louise - I live in a small federation single fronted cottage in an inner west suburb of Sydney and would like to freshen the façade to modernise it and improve on the street appeal. Within the next month I am planning on replacing the bullnose awning to one that is flat but angled, paint the exterior of the house and lay tiles in the porch and step areas (carport and planting to soften the façade will come later). The tiles that will be laid in the porch are artisan style ones shown in the pics below, steps will be marble. The house is north facing and I am going for the Hamptons look. I would like to know (a) if you think this colour scheme will work and if there is a better colour scheme that you can please recommend - Dulux tranquil retreat for the exterior, trims will be crisp white, surfmist for the awning and momentum for gutters, (b) should the awning have a corrugated or trimdek profile and (c) the tradie will be removing the timber post and replacing this will aluminium ones white in colour - is aluminium a terrible idea? The houses on the street are a mix of federation, bungalows and modern ones. Some are as-is in pretty much original condition and others freshened up with render and paint in pretty neutral colours.

Thank you so much, Julie. I thought you would be interested in the end result, given how much encouragement and advice you so generously gave me. :-) I do love it. It has made such a difference and I think (fingers crossed) the landscaping will give it the finishing touch. We are reroofing the pergola, so will post photos when that is completed. The gazebo looks great after its facelift, too.

Hi Annb1997 I was also confused and intrigued about the two sided binds - so looked them up and found they differ from double rollers. A company called 'Blinds on the Net' supply them. They are called Zebra Blinds and this extract from their website explains how the operate "The cleverly designed Zebra Blind utilses a horizontal striped fabric with alternating Translucent or Block Out and Sheer stripes. Two layers of this fabric move independantly to create overlaping combinations or Translucent and Sheer or Block Out and Sheer. A simple but effective idea that allows high levels of light and privacy control with the one product."

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