@ sally wastie....Would have loved those pine kitchen cupboards....before they were painted. Had I a strong yen for :a bit of colour"...(and I do love colour), I would have had a new glossy multi coloured counter top, probably something very striking and then oiled the pine cupboard doors There were no work benches in the kitchen of my 1920s all pine cottage ( always say that the kitchen was an afterthought since it is positioned just of a hallway and consisted only of a sink and a wood burning stove.) I built a small bench/table using VJ pine slats I'd removed from elsewhere and then put a thick pine top that curved out from the small straight bench to form a little round kitchen table..Then came the fun, I painted the benchtop and table a datk teale colour, gave it a flecked faux marble finish and a couple of coats of high gloss waterproof varnish. Nothing terribly amazing but it did give the old...'kitchen space' a bit of a lift. Had a larger round kitchen table with a formica top and timber legs...so gave the table-top the same teale treatment as the bench and it now lives on the veranda that came a few years later. Yes! Teale of any shade always looks good with timber. The only pity was that the kitchen walls and ceiling here were terribly smoke stained and had been painted a really horrible pre WWII green. Begrudgingly, I repainted the walls but used a bright orange/yellow to complement the dark teale colour ( this particular yellow is a good colour to keep the flies out) and, in keeping with the era of the house, I installed a built in dark timber kitchen hutch found at the dump shop. The kitchen is the only room to have been painted and repainted....but still have the dark timber parquetry floors. If you get tired of all timber a few splashes of bright colour in well-thought-out places do not go astray. If you have vertical timber panelled walls and you are feeling hemmed in... a good trick is to stain a small section of panels a darker wood colour or with a coloured stain to shift the focus from all the timber. or you can bleach the timber panels lighter. This idea can create interest extending ceilngward from behind a furniture piece...say low display cabinet...or just in a section of wall. You enhance the all timber 'look' with an eye -catching timber panel of another timber hue...like having a mahogany panel set in a light timber wall... Just a few ideas for those feeling a bit claustrphobic in an all timber house....understandable, not all of us aspire to live in a log cabin...but if carefully accented, an all timber interior can be extremely impressive and will not date. This is a pre-digital shot of the glass panels I had installed in the wall around my bed head...its really faded PIC but you can get the idea. Looks better today since the glass has been decoratively frosted with patterns. The sunroom behind the bedroomThis is also a pre-digital PIC showing the little timber kitchen bench with the teale table top. The end and other side of the bench is stained timber. This little table seats 3 or 4. Pity you can't see the old parquetry floor here. Old formica table given a lift with a Teale coloured painted top...there's no room for it in the ' kitchen space'. Amazing what a little lick of the right colour can do in an all timber house.

just put over a km of spotted gum decking into our new house near the beach. Architect and builder recommended and used Cutek oil. The oil seeps deep into the timber without putting a coat on the surface with will peel or fail. Would definitely not use any product that puts coat on the top of the timber. I have used other finishes on our decking at our main house (Cabots, inter grain etc) and all ended up looking terrible after being punished by the harsh Queensland sun. My advise is research your choice thoroughly, as undoing a mistake is very time-consuming and costly. I guess only time will tell if I got it right this time?? Photos below.

You just can't beat timber. It's real and isn't trying to be something else. The timber look tiles do look quite ok but they could be unfashionable in 10 years time. Bit like tiles laid in the diamond pattern at the moment, just out of trend.... Tiling isn't cheap, mine charged just under $100 per sqm. It is pretty good though and was sandstone theres a bit work involved when compared to ceramic. Go with the real deal if you can afford it, will look great for decade's.

I had some clients that had this colorbond wrap over their timber fascias, which was a similar style to yours and they were very unhappy with the end result. Judging from the age of your home the existing fascia is probabaly a rough sawn oregon timber which has its own character. As timber can be readily trimmed, filled and sanded, the junctions between pieces, and at corners can be easily disguised to give the impression that they are continuous lengths. The problem with the colorbond material is the lengths are limited, and that the joints cannot be readily disguised. In my clients house the installers overlapped the colorbond wrap, and joined the overlapped part with metal rivets. In their case the joint happened directly over the front door and is really obvious. So before you sign a contract to wrap your existing fascia in colorbond there are a few questions you should ask: 1) Do you repair/replace any rotting timber before wrapping? Or is the rot just concealed? 2) What is the maximim length of colourbond fascia that can be supplied, and how is it jointed? Where will these joints occur? Are the joints weatherproof to windblown rain? 3) How is the colorbond fascia jointed at corners, and finished at the ends of the run? The colorbond finish is flat and smooth, so the existing character of the rough sawn oregon fascias will be lost forever. With the eaves, concealed gutters and timber fascias of your home being such an important element to the style of the home I would be considering spending my money on the maintenance and upkeep to preserve the existing character. At least ask your installer to supply addresses of some previous jobs so that you can see how the joints and corners are treated.