I had black stone bench tops at our old house. My kids would sit up at the bench whenever I was in the kitchen, so I was constantly cleaning off the little hand prints they left behind which seemed to be more obvious when light would hit the bench top, but it was easy to clean overall. Just moved into a house with a white corian bench top around the kitchen sink and stove area and it shows everything, every splash, bit of dust, tiny speck of whatever, everything. Makes me miss the black stone!

Congratulations on your new home! I personally favour an all-white interior, but I think it will also depend upon what you plan on doing with the ... colourful carpets. I'm not sure how they'd all look with white walls as they'd really be attention grabbers! I'd potentially start by painting the ceilings white - I personally, particularly don't like the darker ceilings in the bedrooms and blue hallway. I'd also potentially consider picking two or three of your favourite colours from the house (e.g. the hallway blue and bedroom green) and using fewer colours, but consistently throughout the house (instead of every room being a different colour). You could do all living areas in colour X and all bedrooms in colour Y. Good luck!

We are finishing off the remaining garden bed of our front yard to match the other side - roses just didn’t fit. We want to take the opportunity to update the colour scheme on the coining, fascia, gutter and garage door. Also upgrading the front screen doors to a darker colour like monument. I am a fan of griege but want to make sure I pick the right tonings. I love the colour scheme of the mansion below. Would this suit?

I would take the shutters off and see how it looks. And yes to painting them if they are to go back up, paint the windows, the existing painted parts of the porch, gate and the gable all the same warm white colour. The fascia and gutter a warm grey like woodland grey. Some flowering plants will complete the brightening up. You can mKe the whole gable darker, say a 1/4 strength of gutter.