Pics will help you get answers.

I'll stick my neck out and say I love painted brick, especially when not in overwhelming proportions, so I think your house would lend itself well to this treatment. I can see the brick on your house painted in Surfmist - I believe it would totally transform the feel of your house. I love what you've done so far. If you do paint the brick though I would paint the garage door the same dark grey of the wood trim. Jon n Kate Miller are right - if you paint brick you have to be committed. Also don't take short cuts on surface preparation but if done properly there's no reason it shouldn't last as long as any other painted surface.

Hi Georgia, The brick is quite dominant. You could paint out the 2 small side walls to match the rest of the walls in the room. The main fire place you could do the flooring; up to the mantel height you could either leave the brick as is as maybe white wash it to make it less dark, or you can clad it with a tile of stone. Replace the mantle timber wish something that is the full width of the fire place so that it creates a separation point. Paint the brick above the mantle either the same colour as the rest of the room or something complementary. There is always the option of plasterboard so you don't have as much texture visible. Let me know if you need more help. MKG

Thanks everyone for all the tips Oh and deck had to go poor materials and badly constructed. I think we are going to power clean and look at it for a bit longer. Part of me wants to do something a bit more colourful but we will see... Secret design studio had an interesting example of colourful paving