For paint I'd have a look at Taubmans Beach House or Airlie Beach. To cover the air con I'd get a thick framed photo canvas, and hang it over the top. For a more expensive solution, have a box frame made and fit plantation shutters.

Are you sticking with the blue and turquoise as an accent colour? You could put a vase or bowl on the console table in your accent colour. If there are small children you might not want one that's too expensive. Plants are very fashionable now, which direction does that window face?

ThAnks for all your comments. All good thoughts! I must clarify that as many 60s homes in inner Canberra have been built with a red brick base and a different top (in this case cream brick). In the period many homes also had the top rendered instead of brick. Although the cream bricks of mine seem charming , rendering allows insulation of the walls, which is helpful in the climate. The extra red bricks in the photo are for the footings in our back extension.

Once we get more texture (rugs, wall scones, pops of colour, shelves) and accent furniture in the room… it will seem a lot less bare. We were really going for a more masculine industrial feel here. The rest of our house is all over the map lol. Balinese front living room. Rustic modern farmhouse kitchen/dining room. Hamptons bedrooms… but each space is thoughtfully decorated and neat/modern. I don’t like to have the whole house seem the same…. So we have ‘areas’