I like @kelly's idea of picking a lovely fresh color of paint for the door. You can then bring it down onto the stair risers. Either a solid color to match the front door, or go wild and add some decorative elements to the risers with stencils. Or think of staining the door a great color and coordinate the stair railings and risers. I have an idea book put together for just such project that might spark some ideas for you. http://www.houzz.com/ideabooks/16700983/thumbs/Kathryn-Delany-s-Decorative-Stair-Risers

try going to Hamilton Parker on Lenard ave. off 670 it is in downtown area and will give you great ideas.

Hi all ! New to this forum so any help would be appreciated House is only around 10 years old but we are going to repaint Half the house is weatherboard , and half plaster (as per photos) We are wanting to go with greys , we are thinking darker grey weather board and lighter plaster ? The aluminium joinery is a light grey (almost exact to Dulux Timeless grey) We are struggling to get the right theme or idea on what we should do We were thinking Dulux Taihape for weather board , but unsure what to do with the plaster.. Ideas or opinions much appreciated ! (Sorry about quality of photos , I ran outside in the rain just to post this)

Personally , I think the main colour is fine , the crisp white on the poles and most of the terrace is fine -- the two different 'sandy khahki' shades ( the window surrounds , and the planter ) looks out of date . I'd do both of them in charcoal , as well as the terrace base board and the upstairs downpipes . It looks like the barge board and the veranda are already a charcoal -- if not , then darken them up too . The mid grey on the steps etc is fine as is , it's hard to see in the photos but the front door looks like it might be a nice solid wooden one -- again , thats fine to me , but I'd do the door surround in a crisp white to make it more noticeable . The other brighter option would be to do the window surrounds , the door surround , the top barge board including the gables , the terrace base and probably the terrace top rail -- all in a bright sunshine yellow !