I love your house and love black, but looking at the house as it is I see Mid Century/Japanese, so working with The current theme, I would try a clean simple concrete Porch continuing down to wide Timber steps and then onto large simple floating concrete slabs. I would fill the garden with light coloured gravel with a few large rocks, a Miniature Japanese Maple etc

I have tried to show this in my following rough sketch

Oh thank you both for your input.  Julie those are exactly the photos I have selected. 

Siriuskey those are great ideas.  I did want crazy paving originally but got talked out of it by landscaper and now we have large travertine pavers waiting to go down which will still look good I think.  I agree that bringing the timber into steps would have been a good idea and now that there is render on the retaining walls I do like the cement finish look.

I thnk your house looks lovely and I know black is in and does make for a good backdrop for landscaping but there's the sustainability aspect too worth thinking about.

I know what you mean Macy plus it can look pretty dusty easily. 

This is a fairly shady side of the house as it faces East and we have very large deciduous street trees

To be honest I actually really wanted a dark olive green colour but whilst I think that would look good with the timber and black trims I don't think it works as well with the monument

I reckon leave it as it is ( and I obviously love the spot of colour you've introduced with the door ! ) and then add your gardens , although maybe mix up the colourings and variety of plants . The existing brick colour works brilliantly with the timber , whereas it won't so much if you go dark -- like I said , I like the existing mix , it seems balanced and warm .

I always think dark means you have something sinister -- something to hide !

Oh but I do Pottsy, I do!

I think the photos make the beigeish colour look a bit nicer than it is but I'm willing to sit for it for a while. 

One of my primary yuck factors for the house (ex govvie) is the lack of decent eaves which makes the roof look like an undersized hat. And the crappy location of windows (pushed right against the walls so you can see how wide they are spread apart with no plants in-between them anymore).

I think I wanted something to break up the brick work on the left

I feel it's a lot of house and would have preferred a retaining wall to cover up the lower parts of the facade.

The air vents are super noticeable and annoy me quite a lot

Going dark won't help any of that !

The timber averts the eyes , plants will avert the eyes and/or cover some things ( and both bring in some warmth and colour ) .

Dark will be a fad ( 25 years ago here in NZ there was a fad to paint bricks white ; 15 years ago it was grey ) and needs upkeep , but hey , its your place , do what you like or what you think is on-trend , but I think it would have looked okay as it is 25 years ago , and now , and in 20 years time .

We have a (new build, Japanese inspired) black house with a high black fence in our street, and it looks fabulous. No at all “ glaringly” black. I think the specific sheen and tone were paramount in its success. Have you spoken to a specialty paint store. Some of them have software exactly for the purpose of visualising the final outcome. I found when we were looking at paint colours that, especially if you called ahead, the staff were really helpful and the stores usually had someone, trained in design, to help. Will love to see your progress and final images

Good point Jan, this is my very rough sketch

Leave the front door red, in Porters Oxblood, Or Red Lanten. My preference would be Chinese Fire Cracker. This will retain the welcome, cheeriness and divine the entry. To pull off the Japanese garden, takes a lot of skill with plant selection and placement. Your house at the moment has great balance in colour, and contrast of materials. If you go all black, the balance has to recalibrated with the landscape. A Japanese inspired garden is a full time job in maintenance and trimming. With what is presented now, you have a great feeling for an oriental garden. If in Queensland or Sub tropical type climate, you could go semi tropical. If in a more temperate climate you could go for great showy plants such as Daphnes, Peonies, Camellias as well as Japanese marbles etc.

I'm not really that into a Japanese garden I think the blank slate lends itself to that.  I'm in Canberra and like a mix of silver foliage and different textures. 

I think our landscape plans has good mix of plants which will suit the conditions.

I do love the render of it black. 

And I know about black being a trend but it is only paint and not that hard to re do. 

Only other thought is keep the house the lighter colour and just make retaining walls all black.

Black will be great

The roof is dark , the gutters and downpipes are dark , the windows are dark , the base of your terrace is dark , and the 2 low walls are dark . By doing all the retaining walls dark ( I assume the entry steps and walls etc ? Maybe even the vents and lower bricks ? ) it will make your house look like a rectangular box floating on darkness ( even when the gardens fill out ) whereas now it is an interesting shape that isn't obviously a box , due to the mix of styles and heights and colours -- retain that IMO .

Black houses are striking, blend beautifully into the landscape, nothing sinister just an absolutely stunning look, dare to be different and you will love it ❤️

Just to add… how good would this olive tree look, the maple is to die for against the black, beautiful understated water feature, and black and silver planting.. I think whatever you do C P it will look beautiful.

Thanks Julie, your inspo pics are always my greatest inspo.

If you have the budget for Porters Paints. Have a look a Palm Beach Black. You’ll be able to Google pics. It’s a great outdoor colour.

Just paint the front door black.

Install timber on the front retaining wall, matching the timber of windows and front door. Paint left side of step the same colour as slats on the right, black, or same light colour as bricks. The planting will look good in the retainer wall against the wood.

I actually just realized. One of the photos Julie Hubert posted, on the 25 June, show the wood cladding on the left of stairs. It looks so good and unexpected. As per my above post. This would be my suggestion. Clad the wall on the right of stairs, and maybe also the left of stairs as per Julie's photo.

Dreamer that is rather a cool suggestion I had been thinking about ways to incorporate more cladding.  Originally I had wanted stone cladding on retaining walls but I think too busy and adding in another element.

I might wait until pavers in situ and then see whether it will work

Just giving myself a little bump. 

Carry on as you were...

So looking more closely at my limestone paver it's quite earthy in tone and clearly doesn't work very well with grey. I assume it would still work with black but not 100% convinced.

When the pavers arrived they were a lot redder than I had anticipated and I hope they don't end up looking dirty ask the time. 

A dark khaki colour on walls perhaps?

This is bronze fig which is too pale I think (and a bit greener and less grey in real life)

This is jeep from Porters paint which I rather love but it didn't look great next to Monument trims (but looked great next to black and timber)

I think something in-between these 2 might be an option?

They both look a bit greyer in the photo than they are in real life

So hard to find photos of green houses which aren't old style American with white trims

An old saying -- 'People in Green Houses Shouldn't Walk Around Naked'

I would still go dark paint on bricks. Those pavers look pink on my computer. Hopefully your planting will hide the colour.

Yes I regret the colour of those very expensive pavers which I don't think were the same as the sample

And great photo dreamer

With the pinker tones in the pavers , and wanting to go darker on the bricks , maybe go a deep purple . But then the red entrance door would have to go Vitamin C Orange , but boy would it look great !

Oh Pottsy Pottsy Pottsy, only you could choose my most detested colour in purple. Not in a pink (purple) fit!

I did like your greenhouse pun though

Agree C P ❤️

C P That colour is stunning . Could look fabulous.

I'm also thinking of getting large metal house numbers (with a light) for the front  wall.

Will look fabulous, the icing on the cake ❤️

I wonder if anyone else is bothered by the steps leading up to the window before accessing the front door? It would really bother me especially if the room is a bedroom...just saying...I'd want to screen it somehow...maybe potted plants..

Hi Alba, yes this was overlooked at the re- design stage.  It's a study not a bedroom but plan on having a planter box there as well.

Oh good! Sets my heart to rest and could see potted bamboo doing rather well there. Good luck with the remainder of your project it is coming along beautifully. :)

Hi again, my saga continues...

Steps...

My husband planned on getting our tiler (rather than landscaper) to put our pavers on as stair treads. They are 600 x 400. I wanted actual predone treads which can either come with pencil or bullnose edge.

The treads come in lengths of either 800 or 1200. 

The bottom set of stairs is about 1530 in width -so ideally 2 x 800 with a grout line in middle of step. The issue is the landing as it doesn't seem as though the grout lines will align because of having to trim the edge. I thought we'd have 4 in portrait orientation across the top and then continue that fashion along to bottom of top set of stairs.

Then with the top set I was planning 2 x 1200 and for the top landing laying the matching pavers landscape so there is 4 x 600 edges.

Husband thinks it won't probably line up and should just use regular pavers on top step and across landing with no specialised treads. I think if we do that we should just use pavers for whole lot and not worry about getting treads.

Sorry I realise this is completely boring but it's really doing my head in. 

I wish we hadn't gone for pavers on stairs at all but feel too late to change mind.

I did also have random thought (not shared with husband) of getting the treads in a dark bluestone for contrast and then it wouldn't matter about lining things up on landing.  Although not sure how it would look right against the limestone. 

If anyone has any good photos of pavers rhis size as stair treads I'd really appreciate it.

Mind you at various times I've entertained the idea of a modern black and white tessellated tile on stairs

Hmm this picture of travertine pavers with I think a tumbled edge looks fine.  I must be overthinking it. 

Having tumbled edge should work... without having to go to hassle of ordering additional treads

https://pin.it/6CothtM

Looks beautiful.