Because of the heat, you should not use dark colours on walls or roof. regarding painting of brick. Brick is an almost no maintenance cladding. When you paint it you've set yourself up for a big chore every 7 (on the west) to 10 years. Secondly, if you still want to paint it, you need to use special brick paint, or natural limewash. Bricks and mortar need to breathe. If they can't, you can have structural problems down the track. theres lots of information about limewash on the Internet.

Your new home looks fabulous! Congratulations from the Team at North! I am a visual person so I hope you don't mind me adding some photos to help explain colours. Your home has more yellow brick then red like these homes. However the dark grey, light grey and white framing works well with the brick creating a modern clean look. Darker grey for roof, light grey timber/cladding on top level and light grey down stairs around the smaller square windows. You could add a window frame, to frame the windows in light grey/white around the yellow windows or just leave them as they are. Painting aluminum is not recommend unless you get the professionals in. If you wanted to use panels instead of timber have a look at James Hardie cladding - 13 11 03 is the contact number - They have a fabulous products that give you cladding with a paint finish that will outlast any timber you put on your home and is low maintenance. Need to check with the local council as to what roof colours are aloud some don't allow to dark because of cooling costs. Its suggested you pick 3 colours to keep it unified. Its a personal preference what colours you like? Below the white and blue grey looks amazing! Please let us know what you choose. A project is always exciting.

I hate to say it , but the roof is only part of the problem IMO . That yellowy cream on the weatherboards looks dated ( look how clean the white Cape Cod deck chairs look in comparison ) , but then so does the window trim and the blinds . So while normally I'd say go dark charcoal ( maybe Monument ? ) and lighten the weatherboards ( maybe a Surfmist or similar ) , but then the windows will look out of place . So all I can think , on a budget ( i.e. not replacing the windows ) would be go a darker blue on the roof ( almost a royal blue/purple mixed with a charcoal ) and follow through to the door , then a lighter surfmist or similar ( off-white with a blue tinge ) -- or even a pastel blue to really get that vibe -- on the weatherboards -- that way the windows and even the blinds will look okay -- almost like you planned it to be retro but ironic at the same time !

When I read the heading and the first few sentences , I thought OMG -- orange bricks and an orange terracota roof ! But yeah , I'd call that a blonde , with regrowth on top haha ! So its reasonably pleasant , but what to do ? Dark windows would look good , BUT even then , the overall design and even the window size all screams 80's , so you'd spend $20k or whatever to do the whole place with new windows , and it'll just be modernised 80's . And to expand on that , what Julie Herbert alluded to -- the gardens and fence look 80's too . The front fence also looks oranger than the house too -- are they exactly the same as the house , or newer and/or oranger ? One possible 'tie-in' would be some long and low panels of Coloursteel where the rails are ( basically , keep the bricks on the fence , just do in-fill panels in Coloursteel , only going the same height as the pillars ) . The roof looks a charcoal , so I'd stick with that in coloursteel for the roof , IF GOING IN THAT DIRECTION . Why I say that is because I actually think the roof would look okay if you added some mid grey terracotta tiles -- go for a speckled look . Those light grey ones would look too harsh a contrast IMO , but go go mid grey and the existing charcoal would look 'interesting' IMO , it may be cheaper than a full coloursteel roof ( you'd want to check the labour cost though ) , and if say 80% of the existing tiles can be re-used , its probably better both cost but also waste wise ? And that leaves the brown -- obviously , go charcoal there too , along with more modern plants and garden design . And while some people criticise me , because I often say do a 'sunny' ( bright red , yellow or orange ) front door , not only will it look better , it changes peoples focus , so the less attractive features aren't noticed as much -- whether passer-bys love or loath the bright front door -- they'll look at it and comment , rather than noting the brown base or orangey fence bricks .