The first photo is of the pavers we love, next to the already established honed concrete. Second photo of the house, the area we need to complete is currently covered in carpet. The third photo is of the paving sample sitting on top of an exposed aggregate concrete sample. We probably like this one the most out of all the exposed aggregate samples we looked at, but we are not totally into it. On the right side of the picture is the established honed concrete.

Thanks everyone for your further comments. No problem about it being an old post, always nice to communicate with people about design solutions/problems. Jilly, I posted some photos on 1st January 2016, they appear further up in the post. Garden Beet Pty Ltd, and Morel Construction Ltd, both of your solutions look great, but our problem still remains the western Queensland sun which is pretty vicious on anything that will either wilt, fade or break down. It was quite a difficult challenge to come up with something that was affordable, workable and durable. I would love to have had plants because I believe they soften large "hard" exterior areas, but we have decided that we will do that with pots around the pool area. Still have that to do, even after all this time. :) Thanks everyone for re-igniting this chat. Jilly, hope you find something that works for you.

Hi Amy, Isn't it great! You can paint pebblecrete but my first thought is don't touch it. If you haven't already, pressure clean it to get the true colours. Personally, I'd lean towards the sandstone coloured paver unless there's an overwhelming of grey in your in the stone in your retaining wall (and because I love my high pressure hose, I'd give these a quick go over to check the colour too - what can I say - if I'm dragging the high pressure hose out to do one thing, do 'em all) - only because it's shady spot at some point during the day so the lighter sandstone will keep it light rather than feeling too shady (particularly in winter). Good luck - I'd love to see the end result.

there are way too many colours going on here. Your home is a traditional style and yes the cream and green are traditional colours with the reddish brick however why did you put grey around the windows??also you have red scollops above the grey and it doesn't do the house justice. What colour was there before you painted the grey?? considering grey is a more modern colour I think you were attempting to modernise the externals. in saying that the roof would have been better to paint charcoal the cream in white and then the grey and then the driveway would be done in a grey stain. but if you leave it the way it is and cover the red scolloping above the windows the same grey and the bricks below the windows near the ground grey as well then get the drive way restained to the reddish colour of the bricks on the house and then it would blend more and look inviting.