I think a formal garden like in that beverly hills house would look really great with what you have planned. Its a big grand old house so it really suits to go quite grand in the style. i think the pencil pines in that picture would be a good addition to your front garden, The long lines really suit the height of the house. Some height in the garden is really what's lacking in your garden, also consider long tall flowers like lillies, agapanthus, hippeastrums or alliums. A few pants that echo the line and height of the columns would look great.

Hi Joe, Congratulations on the purchase of your new home. I would suggest framing the windows white and painting the home with whites and greys. Your brick apprears darker then this example. However the shutters on the sides of the windows give a lovely cottage family home feel. If you did these in white they would lift the colour of the home. Possibly add a timber deck over the concreate front to add colour. Suggest taking away the hedge at the front of the house and replacing it with a stone path to the driveway.

Are you sure the roof is stainless steel?? That is VERY expensive and only used in very exposed corrosive coastal locations since it lasts forever. I think it might be Zincalume, a low cost but very durable and very common roofing material that has a light silvery surface and should last for 50 years. Definitely do NOT paint the roof black (or any dark colour), it would add more than 10° to the internal heat load, and you would have to spend so much more on insulation and on-going AC costs just to get back to where you are now. Have the roof checked and repaired by a roof plumber instead. If it's an old leaky galvanised iron roof at the end of it's days, replace it with zincalume. The porch roof looks like it needs replacing, but I would replace it with new roofing, possibly the insulated sandwich panel kind, that has a smooth white underside, then add a gutter to the front edge so you don't make your visitors walk under a waterfall in the rain. The canvas awning suggested earlier would not last as long without looking tired and would require the removal of existing roof structure, so I think it would be the more costly option (and you would still have the waterfall problem). I would leave the front fence as is, it ties in nicely with the house, but trim the tree. The back deck could easily be roofed to match the front, and be more useful to tenants with weather protection. It would be good to make all trim colours the same, and against the cream brick I think the dark grey you have on the front door and columns works quite well. I would make the other windows and trim, as well as the weatherboards over the back door match that if it just involves painting. However, it's not essential and if it means changing powdercoat finishes it would be too costly to be worthwhile in a rental.

Hi there, the proportions of your home at the front are very good to work with - you could easily go cottage style or modern. I think it is the apricot/beige colour of the render and the black windows and ironwork at the front that is letting down the facade, luckily you have a roof colour that will work with many wall paint colours so lots of options for repainting the render. I cant see if your windows are timber or aluminium, but if timber painting them off-white would make a huge difference as would replacing the ironwork posts with timber posts, some timber trims and railing. That style of facade works equally well with a bold paint colour or a lighter colour, so again you can opt for a classic or modern look. Is all that paving needed, is it for parking? If you dont want to remove it then perhaps just taking out some pavers in the center to form a large square and planting a feature tree (edged with box hedges or planted around with groundcover) would look amazing and break up the large paved area. Julie's images show how great box hedges look, using them to line driveways and divide areas creates a formal and neat look.