I have miles of decking at two houses. All timber when put in the Australian sun will suffer. When building our beach house we decided to go for Spotted Gum and let it grey. Why fight it? We applied Cutek, and will on a regular basis. At our main house we have lots of Merabu or Quilla. Will not grey the same, and leaches lots of red stain. Cheap, but would not use again. What ever you use, use a good quality oil that seeps deep into the wood not a traditional stain/or top finishing product.

It is all relative to the entire property, the house and the yard. Is this a part of the pedestrian circulation or a seating area? Are there utilities adjacent, is it in the front yard and viewed by neighbors, or part of your private space. Is it viewed from the dining/living rooms or just from the bedrooms. Will it be used by tricycles or just feet (no golf shoes please). In my experience, (don't you hate it when someone starts off a sentence in which he offers advice with that phrase), the mondo grass is too large for any pedestrian pavement. There are a large variety of more prostrate plants you can walk on at your garden center, I expect. Some can be walked on daily, and others less often. Some are evergreen, some have attractive flowers, some are into more gray or smoky colors than just green. You can mix them up, just as you do with groundcovers in your plant beds. Enjoy!

I am no expert, but it appears (from the wood, shape and handles) to be a danish teak dresser - they date from around the mid-late fifties and sixties. Don't think they are particularly rare (check for makers mark eg) Borge Mogensen/Sorborg Mobler?), but they are lovely, and very on-trend (similar new version by West Elm sells for $1099). Didn't find one exactly like yours on ebay, but similar vintage ones listed start at around AU $550-$600 and go up from there. A great thrifting find!

there are way too many colours going on here. Your home is a traditional style and yes the cream and green are traditional colours with the reddish brick however why did you put grey around the windows??also you have red scollops above the grey and it doesn't do the house justice. What colour was there before you painted the grey?? considering grey is a more modern colour I think you were attempting to modernise the externals. in saying that the roof would have been better to paint charcoal the cream in white and then the grey and then the driveway would be done in a grey stain. but if you leave it the way it is and cover the red scolloping above the windows the same grey and the bricks below the windows near the ground grey as well then get the drive way restained to the reddish colour of the bricks on the house and then it would blend more and look inviting.