for bright and breezy go for pale yellows and oranges - blues & greys are everywhere - or look at light greens You can go with Surfmist for the roof and facias to keep it lighter - I would even do a Zinc roof with this design for a clean, modern minimalist look. Then look at Dulux Tinker Light at half & quarter tones if you want to go into the yellows or try Dulux Fresh Frappe or Misty Moore for the greens ... Try something different. If you have a neutral roof, you can go crazy with colours - and change them more easily whenever you want to update your look. Good Luck! :)

Interesting project there........when you're dealing with extending immediately from an existing building there are usually two ways to go....1. blend/extend seamlessly so that there is essentially no indication of any additions, or 2. separate/distinguish clearly between the old and the new. It's usually reflected somewhat in the floor plan as well. There is also a spectrum within both of those categories on how it can be done and whether its deemed to be done well or not so well. The issue I see with the facade articulation resolution (on your drawings) is that it is arguably neither one nor the other. The window/fenestration articulation is an issue because there's no confident consistency or sequence to the proportions of the new glazing areas. If you want "timeless" then you need to pull it into line with a particular style, either remain faithful to the reference/traditions/scaling/proportions of the original, or if that is either challenging or not providing the functional outcome sought, then consolidate the style/breakup of the extended windows to be visually contrasting yet balanced/controlled against the original. It's a similar story with the materials, it needs to all balance compositionally. Usually the decisions in this area come down to how best to balance also in conjunction with the roof form. And getting to the roof, this is again similar in that it's not ideal to mix & match gable and hip forms unless there's good reason to do so or you feature projecting gables out from a primary hip composition like as in cal bungs. I think you'll find it would be a better outcome to confidently work with one or the other here. In this case the existing primary reference is the gable form and this could be really be made the defining building form feature, but you need to decide upon how you articulate the gable forms - it's like there needs to be a clever/clear approach/language developed with some contemporary material to express the garage gable full height so it reads as the single material, rather than being broken up with the garage door and the gable infill - if it was a hidden door and the form finished more consistently the whole thing would look classier, professional and more elegant. There is super potential here to get this right and look amazing. I think the layout is all OK but some harder work is required/deserved on the facade, street presentation and form resolution, which obviously you are aware about since you've asked the question......possibly here, less in more ;) PD

Hi Lilith - your cottage has lovely charm - and a fascinating past! I can see you are seeking to introduce some contemporary elements - but my strong suggestion as per some of the above is to keep the heritage front and reinstate the bull-nose verandah. The verandah and front 2 rooms are 'the face of the house' - it's how people understand the style/period of a home, and helps place a house in context, and belong to a neighbourhood, even in country areas. The traditional design of the bull-nose verandah across Victorian cottages is not only an identifying period element, It also has practical purposes like providing an appropriate entry point, cover from rain as you arrive home, a threshold for greeting guests, as well as providing shade from the hot summer sun. Trust me - keeping and reinstating the bull-nose verandah will maximise the eventual resale value in your home especially as time goes on. I thus have several comments and a few big-picture suggestions for you! And I am deliberately not asking what your budget is; think of these as masterplan suggestions! 1. Don't just keep the verandah as is - reinstate it for its full length by removing the entry portico and built-in wardrobe. Tile it for the full width with your lovely tile pattern, and a selection of plant pots of lavender and succulents, or balls of lily-pily etc. Source a second-hand victorian doorway with stained glass above to let light into the corridor, and reinstate the north-facing window into your main bedroom - you won't regret it! 2. Ahh but that means you've lost your walk-in? The current walk-in actually blocks the north light, and removing the walk-in will radically transform how this room feels..........Building a built-in robe along one wall would be the cheapest option, for only the cost of the robe itself. However if you MUST have a walk-in, it will cost about $3-4K/m2 to add in a small new area of walk-in to the side. HOWEVER.... 3. Radical suggestion.....I observe that the contemporary addition at the back of the house reflects a large, modern-sized open-plan space, and yet 2 big chunks of it are taken up by bathroom and laundry. In fact the bathroom corner, poking out from the side of the house, actually looks like it gets north sunlight throughout the afternoon. SO..... 4. You could plan for a renovation that moves the bathroom, laundry and walk-in robe (accessed from the main bedroom) into the living-room zone, extending the corridor through it. Then you have created a large open-plan kitchen-living-dining at the back for the entire room, which has access to a north-facing wall in the corner perfect for afternoon entertaining which you could link with an extended deck! Just add big double-glazed doors to this corner. (I know I know - it will be looking straight at the water tank, but you could relocate this to the other side OR just landscape in front of it). You could modernise the back verandah to look more like the verandah images you posted above. All of the above can be done without adding any new floor area, just the relocated bathroom and laundry/robe, plus the cost of new floors, plaster repair and painting to the rear space.. Anyway hopefully I have given you some ideas about the possibilities over the longer term! Good Luck!

These are my mock ups. Don't laugh. Online visualising tool are terrible. I think my roof and render will look much lighter than this. 1st is night sky. 2nd monument. I like monument better but once it fades i don't think it will look like this. I am planning a vine/creeper growing over the blade wall and maybe across the pitch.