Hi, we are extending upstairs over a older red brick home. we have Ironstone windows, gutters, roof. We are going to render the extension but don't want to go lighter like a Dune colour but more of a medium grey. We will be replacing our posts and garage door with timber (also have a timber gate) so I feel like we can get away with a darker grey upstairs render. Do you know a good medium grey that goes well with Ironstone? Initially I was thinking Simone Weil and maybe even Guild Grey if it's not too dark?

build a small shed say 2m x 3m open sided or with a stable door, dependng on your local climate, Colorbond steel would be the easiest but weatherboard or modern fibro siding painted to complement the house...add a big exercise yard built out of tall star post and/or treated pine posts with chicken wire dug into the soil to create a secure yard to lock up the dog when necessary (the shed and yard would also suit chickens!)...shade, food, water and a comfy bed with a view of the front gate and the house would make the enclosure more dog friendly.... fences could be simple farm fencing with star posts, strained wire and chicken mesh to create the most see through fence and also consider special electric dog fences with a collar that we found very successful on acreage (the electric wire is llaid on or dug into the groundl and the dog wears a collar that emits an electric charge if it tries to cross the boundary or sneak out an open gate ... no real fences are required to keep them restrained but the small shed and exercise yard is still needed for a dog that can't be inside all the time

Just as a tip, those dark colours in your light brick arent' grey, they are a deep purple/brown also known as Burnt Umber. The midtone colour in that brick is also a purple brown in a natural mineral, in artists land that colour is called Indian Red, other similar hues are perylene maroon and piemontite. I'm an artist so very used to seeing different colours and their undertones. Colours that will go with that will be blacks that are actually red or purple based. So NOT monument which is a blue based charcoal. Blacks come in many different tones and it's important to match the undertone to your brick for colour harmony. Blacks which are complementary or blue based will stand out more but may not go as well. Which is why the grey blind seems uninspiring, it's a blue based grey. I'll name some colours in the Taubmans brand. I didn't pick Dulux because it has an abyssmal colour selection atm. Phantom Myst and Fable would both be good blacks to use on your home. Ruby Rose and Redwood and Russet stone would all go with the brick colours. Unless you train your eye to see hues and undertones it's very difficult to spot them which is why a colour consultants have a job. If you're interested learning colour mixing is fascinating there are even hues like red-blues which sounds paradoxical but ultramarine is actually a red based blue' A hack for creating colour palettes super easy. If you have Photoshop you can show it a photo and it will automatically create a perfectly co-ordinated colour palette for you of 6 or so colours which are exact matches to the colours in the photos. Any photo at all, and it will spit out pantone colour codes for you that you can take to paint shop and have them mix up. It picks up some dark, mid and light tones and you can have it create monochromatic, complementary, split coplementary etc palettes that work beautifully.

Keeping in mind you want something cheap, do you have pics or a plan, because maybe you could simply plant most of the fence for an unobtrusive backdrop and do one length as a feature? I agree with C P that colour alone won't do it with a metal fence. If you go for something in front, you want a pattern that is reminiscent of MCM and breezeblocks, but that might be too busy for a backdrop for cacti, more of a feature on its own perhaps. Ideally I think a plain light rendered finish as a backdrop for dessert plantings. Either way it's not exactly going to be cheap.