I have miles of decking at two houses. All timber when put in the Australian sun will suffer. When building our beach house we decided to go for Spotted Gum and let it grey. Why fight it? We applied Cutek, and will on a regular basis. At our main house we have lots of Merabu or Quilla. Will not grey the same, and leaches lots of red stain. Cheap, but would not use again. What ever you use, use a good quality oil that seeps deep into the wood not a traditional stain/or top finishing product.

Timber all the way!!! The look and feel of real timber under your feet cannot be matched. Depending on the size of the deck, paying a professional every few years to refinish the deck is not that costly and worth it in my opinion. I recently had to refinish a hardwood deck for a client and it was a huge area. It only cost $1200 for labour and materials and took only one day to do. the benefit of timber is that if you like the idea of changing the colour at some point, you can! This is not possible with composites. Just make sure you do your research as to the best type of timber for your needs.

It doesn't look that bad. I'd go with rugs inside and out to draw your attention away. If you go with a stain, you can get grey stains. Bunnings have a Hunter Grey.

Hi Wren, what a lovely setting! I would be inclined to match the door colour in with the exterior wall colour. Include the casing, threshold and trims as well and this way you will end up with the timber, black and your main paint colour to give a better sense of balance. Good luck! Regards, Kathryn.