Just a thought - Have you tested the existing cladding for asbestos prior to removing? Some of my coastal clients also feel the need to 'fill' the corrugations at the ends prior to capping or butting up to end frames: to dissuade small creatures from also moving in to a nice new home. Colorbond Surfmist will look great and horizontal will help to balance your homes height, however, it also gives ridges where dust and dirt sits and so needs to be hosed down more often - probably a good idea as it removes some of the salt as well. Good luck with the reno, the Architects image looks great.

Timber all the way!!! The look and feel of real timber under your feet cannot be matched. Depending on the size of the deck, paying a professional every few years to refinish the deck is not that costly and worth it in my opinion. I recently had to refinish a hardwood deck for a client and it was a huge area. It only cost $1200 for labour and materials and took only one day to do. the benefit of timber is that if you like the idea of changing the colour at some point, you can! This is not possible with composites. Just make sure you do your research as to the best type of timber for your needs.

Thanks girlguides for your feedback :-) With my limited colour knowledge (LOL) I thought that Windspray looked OK with Basalt - Windspray is definitely a cooler grey but Basalt seems pretty much neutral (i.e. not warm or cool) so I thought it worked when we went to look at samples... You are definitely right though, it is a pretty subtle colour scheme. I think I'm pretty much decided now that the gutters and fascia should be the same colour - so with your suggestion they'd both be surfmist. With your colour scheme, what would you suggest for the balustrades and balustrade/deck posts? I thought a darker colour for them would be best since I want them to recede into the view when sitting on the deck/looking outside.

Hi, firstly congratulations on your decision to renovate. How exciting. We are nearing the end of a major renovation and choosing the exterior colours was a real sticking point. Most of the houses around us were built in the 1990's and my renovation had the potential to not quite fit in. I had to use a timber cladding to match the existing cedar but the original had been poorly stained and I was never going to get a cohesive match between old and new. I was left pondering my choices. The solution was to paint both but what colour? In the end, I looked at what of the existing was going to be left unchanged. It turned out to be the Karaka Green window frames - not my favourite colour - but in order to work with it I had to pray I didn't offend the neighbourhood. I didn't want the old dirty brown shade and a thousand testpots later, left me with only one really obvious answer. As you can see from the photo, I chose [quite radically] to paint the entire extention in Half Karaka green. It's still a work in progress and in the coming weeks, the rest of the house will be painted to match. I waited for the neighbours - particularly, the old people from the Rest Home at the end of the street - to tell me off for my choice but have been blown away by their reactions. Every last comment has been a major thumbs up. Even the painter - who was highly skeptical - apologised for his doubt, Don't automatically assume your neighbours are going to hate seeing the changes you are about to bring to the area. Which brings me to your planned renovations. I am assuming that your window frames are also going to remain the white colour in the photo. Rather than get all confused about greys etc. Start with them as the basis for the rest of the house and work out from there. If you do that, then I don't think it will be as difficult as it currently seems for you to pick what the rest of the house will be. Don't be afraid to spend money on purchasing test pots. They are around $4 or $5 each and I believe that I probably spent $200. It was worth every penny to me to get a few small off cuts of cedar painted and sit and look at them alongside the existing windows in order to make an informed decision. Good luck. I look forward to seeing some finished photos. I hope to post my finished renovation photos here soon.