After all we have decided give the north side of the fence with fresh coats of paint same colour as the rest of the fence for now and pulled off all the plant that were grown under the fence from next door neighbor's garden. On day we went pass outdoor furniture shop and saw this Outdoor dinning setting (expandable) made out of Eucalyptus also saw similar design on Houzz long time ago. We went with this easy maintenance and compact setting. I also planted couple of small plants including nandina at the front, Chinese star jasmines to cover the wall and an yellow and a red Mandevilla on the other side of the garden for some pop colour. Hopefully, the jasmine will grow and give some cover. Thank you all again for your input I appreciated

Thank-you all so much for your advice so far, i've already gained so many ideas simply from reading your suggestions. oskuee: The house is a single story, and we have spoken about solar tubes before but weren't too sure how to incorporate lighting fixtures within the hallway as well. How did you go about it? Did you just install the 2 solar tubes with/without lighting fixtures? scottevie: the windows in the lounge will be remaining the same, we will eventually change the colour of the curtains but not straight away, either way the styling and shape will remain the same. Surprisingly there isn't a whole lot of natural light than can enter from that point of the house. There is a very large verandah at the front of the house which this window backs on to, plus the amount of trees from the front of our property and next door's front yard makes it difficult for natural light to seap through. I just had a quick look at some Dulux White Duck examples, i definitely favour something around this colour tone. telperien: i really like the ideas of mirror(s), this would be a great idea to distribute that natural light. I think we are going to try our best to steer clear of knocking down any walls for now unless we really need to! Embrace interiors: Thank-you so much for the recommendations in paint colour and for re-assuring us that we can paint below the dado rail in a darker colour. We've had a closer look and Stone Lion is definitely the tone we are trying to achieve. If we were to paint the bottom half in Stone Lion, what would you recommend the colour of the picture frames for the artwork be on the top half? We definitely would consider painting the top half in a warmer white as you have recommended. Once again, thank-you all for your suggestions and recommendations!!

I'm always surprised whenever I read discussion threads on the pros/cons of timber vs engineered or timber-look products is that I seem to be the only one who cares about the sound, not just the aesthetics. I grew up in very old houses and for me, that sound as you walk along a real timber floor is majestic and cannot be replicated by other products that to, seem to all sound like fingernails on a black board in comparison (okay not really, but it evokes the same reaction in me as does walking on lino). So, for that awesome sound of "real" timber and for longevity's sake, authenticity's sake, and all the reasons above I say option 2. Of course, budget is also important and I totally understand the width argument too.

We're renovating a beautiful old homestead on our farm and I need some exterior colour advice! We've built a new section on and have reroofed the entire house. It was impossible to match the lovely red/brown bricks used on the original part of the house so we have decided to render the new section (as well as another part of the house that was added on some years ago). Roof, bullnose verandah and gutters are Zincalume. Fascia / windows / french doors are all Colorbond Surfmist. We're replacing all of the verandah posts with new timber posts, and the front and back entrance doors will be a matching timber. Now I need help choosing a render colour!! We'll be building a garage near the house and thought we'd try to pick a Colorbond render colour so that we can tie the garage in with the house - perhaps Wallaby or Jasper?? I'm concern they'll be too dark though. Someone suggested that we do a half tint for the render and then the full tint for the garage... thoughts anyone?? All suggestions or advice most welcome!! Thanks