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.

For such a quirky and interesting table in a bohemian and eclectic interior I would consider a set of eight Philippe Starck Ghost Chairs. The classic lines would complement the design of your table, but the clear polycarbonate would not conceal that wonderful pedestal. In addition they are stackable, so you could stack four in a corner, and have four chairs out for everyday use.There are reproductions available, however the polycarbonate is not the same quality as the original Kartell brand, and seems to be more brittle and prone to snapping. The clear ones are classic and are readily available, but I think one of the transparent, smoked versions (perhaps with the gold tint) would work even better. http://www.spacefurniture.com.au/louis-ghost.html Best of luck, Dr Retro of Dr Retro House Calls

When selecting windows it’s a good idea to think about how they perform thermally. The frames influence this as well as the glazing. Timber, uPVC and thermally broken aluminium frames are lower conductors of heat and cool than regular aluminium or steel frames, but they do come at a cost premium. Timber frames also require much more maintenance. And, of course, aesthetics come into play. The windows you select will affect your NATHERS or BASIX rating and will also affect your heating and cooling requirements. For more information these websites have useful information: https://renew.org.au/renew-magazine/buyers-guides/window-buyers-guide/ https://www.wers.net/werscontent/how-to-select-windows

They might be Baltic Pine? What is the age of the house? You could do a google image search for "Baltic pine floorboards" and "cypress pine floorboards" see what the grain and knots look like- do either match with your boards? Yes, you can make them look more like the white washed photo. We have cypress pine boards and recently had them sanded and refinished with Bona White as we wanted to ensure they had no yellowy or orange tinge and make them look more contemporary. They were very orange from the original oil based varnish. We're very happy with them, although we only had one coat of white and it may not have shown up as well as our sample boards. Two coats would have made them more white. The Bona White system was chosen because it is low VOC water based, so doesn't have a strong odour, compared with solvents. Sample boards, showing two coats of Bona White top section, one coat of Bona White bottom section and a varnished board with no stain. This is on Cypress floorboards.