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.

We used spotted gum for our decking and love it! We got it for $4.25 linear metre from Masters (any lengths that were inferior they were happy to replace). Our deck was built next to our near-white pavers so merbau was out of the question due to its leaching (plus we also were wanting an eco-friendly local hardwood if possible).

Are the windows available in Woodland grey or a grey colour close to Woodland grey? I'd still frame them in white. You do see through black but for my posts and deck railings I went Woodland grey instead of black which I find too heavy looking now. Against the foliage in my backyard the Woodland grey really "disappears". My patio roof is also Surf mist.

Haha Siriuskey! Twins are just fascinating :) Yes you are right about the smoky sapelle, but its quite dark (for me anyway!) Here is a link to the light colour that is very similar to Blackbutt https://www.quick-step.com.au/en-au/laminate/impressive-ultra/imu1847_classic-oak-beige?uf_FloorType=flooring_floortype/005_qs_laminate&uf_Thickness=120 Dark colour https://www.quick-step.co.uk/en-gb/laminate/majestic/mj3548_woodland-oak-brown Or really dark! https://www.quick-step.com.au/en-au/laminate/impressive-ultra/imu1849_classic-oak-brown?uf_FloorType=flooring_floortype/005_qs_laminate&uf_Thickness=120 PS This will open on to a Blackbutt deck at rear (which I will probably stain to match if I use a darker colour inside)