Is there part of the house we can't see? Where is your front door? Just the double frontage like that is plain, but that was the style and not much you can do about it. The homes you are looking at do have a lot of features with opportunities to bring in other colours but there is nowhere with yours to do that and if you try it usually cheapens it. If you take the triple fronted house you posted, I would do the lighter green on the weatherboard and the deeper green like they have used on the window frames, I would do for the baseboards and the front door. I would keep the window frames and eaves white and paint the guttering to match the roof. Are you country? Are here any water issues for the garden? Instead of trying to do something with the house, I think I would be inclined to give it all a cottagy look with a picket front fence, nice entrance, a lush lawn and lots of plants for colour and lushness. The dark green baseboard will be a nice background for some small shrubs in front of the house. Weatherboards really lend themselves to that look. Don't forget the addition of old tyre swans - lol I notice you have small awnings over the windows - maybe replace them with some striped canvas ones in greens and terracotta - if you can get the combination. [houzz=]

This is just like our Mediterranean house in Canberra. It was rendered white which never cracked or got mould on it, though I would prefer it to be done in a modern colour like our current home on the Gold Coast which is a rich sand colour with a heavy bagged appearance that has faded from a strong dark sand. With beautiful dark patterned orangey tiles all outside that reflect their colour on the walls during the day it is quite magical. Roof tiles also spray painted after being re pointed. I suggest you amplify the lovely quality of arches and don't go for what is trendy. But go with colour scheme for the house design. At our entrance there is a built up garden courtyard feature with wonderful iron gates and a large water feature in the courtyard that the lounge room looks out to and has the French doors that also opened onto the courtyard garden. Commence the courtyard wall to the left side of the steps and create a flat area at the gated entrance where we had a north single gate and a west double gate. The Pines were planted on the outside of this courtyard wall and gave extra privacy and blocked the westerly afternoon sun. The house always looked impressive, yet was just a simple presentation.

Unless you have the money to update everything else to better complement the bricks, painting them will give you a much more updated look. Over the past 18mths I’ve been working on the front and landscape of my current house, including painting the bricks and it has made the world of difference! I’ve attached a before and after photo! Good luck.

Hi Amanda, tricky... I would suggest rendering the brick and the upstairs exterior so it all hangs together. Use a poly-render. The upstairs currently looks like an after thought and is not working with the rest of the building as it is. I would paint the render and roof in colours that work with your existing front door and windows as painting these is not a long term option that is going to last without a lot of maintenance. So I suggest using the existing roller door colour for the exterior walls with a heritage red roof, gutters and downpipes. Above all keep it simple.