Hi your kitchen is beautiful! I see you have some red pieces in your kitchen and I have seen a home where the ceiling was red a nice warm red and it made the home feel so nice and cozy like you never wanted to leave. They too had a ceiling like yours but that may be too bold. I just looked at ideas in houzz for red in the kitchen...wow how fun. You mentioned you have some red and yellow in your furniture etc., maybe red is for you. Good luck !

I see this is a very old thread , with lots of comments . I've just skim read them , but I haven't seen anyone suggest anything like my 'top-of-my-head' idea -- I love the wood , and the white contrast , but pretty boring . Whats your favourite colour , or what ties in with the other rooms ? It might be blue or red or yellow or orange or green , as examples . So paint the skirting board and around the door a pastel shade of your choice , and add a small 30cm x 30cm abstract painting featuring that colour as the primary dominant one , above ( or possibly below , or maybe even get 2 matching/complementary ones ) the control panel . One lighting crowd suggested glass shades -- I'd actually go for someothing large but wooden , in much the same shade as your floors and steps , with LED bulbs -- you can get some stunning ones around 80-100 cm in diameter ( sort of a star ball shape ) for $300-400 . Total budget then $500 plus a painter and maybe electrician , unless you DIY .

Hi kazzi18 Nice house, strong frontal appeal and typical of the period, I would not change the front with the exception of trimming some trees so that it can be seen slightly better. I think that what you propose is possible and the budget seem close. Here some things that you might like to consider: 1. To give it a required style I would do it by changing slight details to the front if change is required. The handrail has to meet the Australian Building Code (NCC) especially for height and minimum width between balusters. (Cannot tell from the pics that you posted). You may be able to amend it and keep the original - steel can be welded successfully if required. 2. To get your third bedroom I would do a number of sketch plans maybe from a couple of professionals - this will give you an independent view of possibilities - I think a good investment, and you are not tied top any professional that may have their own design agenda once you sign on the dotted line. There is quite a bit of information on your posted plan, dimension wise, you really need a few heights and some information of sewer and drainage all relatively easy to obtain. Then its just a matter of emailing a couple of Building Designers of your choice. Some photos of the side elevation will help in determining an approximate slope, you could employ a surveyor to do a site survey with falls and features (you would most likely will need to employ one eventually - especially if you are going to build close to boundaries or renew any fencing - should have your block surveyed so that you don't suddenly become noted by any surprises in relation to boundaries.) 3. When you are happy with your layout (Sketch Design) you can then employ a Building Designer/Architect/Drafts-person to provide you with documents for a Town Planning application and a Building Permit as required. In the long run you could save some money, by this process, and get your preferred outcome. I have done initial sketch plans for a few clients and it generally results in a fruitful outcome. 4. Both Bedroom 1 and 2 seem to be ample in size, however storage (Walk in Robes) are slightly small especially for a master bedroom. So reclaiming the downstairs space for bedrooms seem to be the way to go , you would certainly have to seal the garage exhaust fumes from such area and may be provide a new internal stair link to the main area. These are the sort of issues that can be sorted out with a little bit of "design work" ideas to determine the best solution. Regards Michael Manias - mm407p@gmail.com Building Designers

1) My cost saving suggestion to you is PAINT, this is going to give you the cheapest tool to change the Miners cottage appearance to attract attention. 2) Leave Roof as is, no Paint ,the roof being left natural to me gives it a studio edge.(and saves precious dollars 3) Wall colour in a darkish grey with all white trim, I was going to suggest a beige colour but it looks like your neighbour has these colours so that's why I'd go bold with wall & fence colour. 4) Perhaps you could build a small fence like the metal one I sent you, this would be made up with scrape material nd place to the R/H side of the driveway, can't see whats on that boundary 5) Gutter and eaves same colour as walls 6) Gates shinny black 7) Keep existing window & door shades and paint them all white, no stripes 8)Front door of your choice, Red and make the studio door a different colour to help students find there way, Yellow 9) Looks like you have a crushed gravel path running along the side of the house to the studio, try to define this from the gate so that you don't have everyone cutting across the verandah, 10) It would be good to have some screening on the Verandah, mesh or other affordable material. 11)Trim the grass, plant some hedging behind the fence and plant some red NZ flax plants off to the right side of the garden 12)Paint garage like house this would help to bulk out the building and make it look a bigger property 13) PAINT good luck