You have done a beautiful job of tucking plants into the crevices of your retaining walls. Your house trim color is perfect -- just slightly lighter in hue than the retaining wall blocks. First I would paint the big, flat gray wall slightly lighter than the blocks and slightly darker than the house trim. The concrete walk and stairs I would stain a mottled blend of the blocks and the house trim colors. Next would be to paint the railing black or the house body color. Now, think of the following as creating a light, airy trellise structure from the walk-level face of the (currently gray) wall to about 7' above the top of the wall (using 6x6" posts attached to the wall) with a corresponding line of posts sunk into the terrace level 2' in from the outside edge of the wall-attached posts. The inside posts would be about 6-8" higher than the outside posts. Put 4x4" wood to attach the outside line of posts to each other and do the same with the inside line of posts. Run wood pieces at the top of the two lines of posts from the inside line to the outside line at about a 45 degree angle. They would be cantilevered up at the terrace level. Across the top of the angled pieces create your top trellise boards which run parallel to the two lines of posts. OK. There you have your basic structure. You might want to extend the structure around to follow the street side of the terrace. You could then follow the suggestion of reom10 above about creating a bench-planter on the terrace side. Your spacing of the boards parallel to the gray wall and attached to the outside posts would determine how private you wanted your terrace to be. You might want to soften the terrace "floor" by using something irregular like flagstone with groundcover plantings between the stones. From the latticework on top of your structure you could hang seasonal flower baskets. Plant vines to go up the trellis and spill down the wall. How about planting a row of tall, narrow shrubs along the neighbor's fence above your terrace to help add to your privacy and make your yard feel less 'structured'? Or, how about patio table/s with umbrellas to block your neighbor's view? Anyway, you have a fun project ahead of you.

Since it's a tiny shed i'm assuming "bikes" = bicycles. Don't know height of shed, this might work for you. http://www.wayfair.com/Gear-Up-Inc.-Platinum-Series-Floor-to-Ceiling-Storage-Rack-33015-GUPI1022.html Is the mower electric or gasoline run. If electric can be hung in a silimar fashion and garden tools too. The whole idea of course is to have a lot a floor left to house wheel barrow, riding mower, and just other stuff that weighs to much

Hello people, Question time again. Im trying to match indoor and outdoor colour to my project around the living and pool area. I have 10 Meters of space to work with which includes 5 meters width of the living area. If i break the colours indoor v's outdoor it will make my area look smaller, more confined ? If i use polished concrete inside and try and match the colour outside, the surface will get hot. Soooooo... I have added some photos here. I went and purchased a box of man made granit tiles 80x 80cm. Keeping the shiny for the inside and tried "honing" the surface of the other tile as a test so i could use it outside and keeping the surface of the 'honed tile" slightly textured to ensure not so slippery and matching the inside colour. After coating this honed tile it has gone slightly darker which is ok. What im wanting to know, is this ok to do ? will there be any down the line effects of the tile if its outside in a wet area ? it maybe only wet for 3 months of the year for a few hours at a time. My challenge here is price V's product / Styling / practacality -Timber is too expensive for outdoor application / requires maintenance -Marble expensive -Natural stone expensive also if anyone has any solutions / kmowledge / advice it its ok to hone an indoor tile and add a protective coating for the outside. this would be much appreciated. Thanks Houzz'ers! Justin :)

It is a pretty 'basic' look , but unless you spend big dollars , that is going to be the base you are working from . the first 2 things I'd do , is buy a waterblaster , blast everything especially bare timber ; and secondly , do every fence in a charcoal stain . Personally , I wouldn't paint the bricks , and I'd even hold off painting the block too . That brown peak has to change , I suspect I'd go a mid-Orange , to be reasonably 'sunny' . Red or yellow too bright for the cream and the style ; blue or green too old and too cold ; grey too boring ; black or brown too dark . I the short term , I'd leave the terrace panels , but do the top rail in a bright Orange , and the base timber that can be seen , in a charcoal . The stair railings I'd do in white with the same bright Orange top rail , the actual stairs in charcoal ( you may have to add a white bit at the front of each to meet Health and Safety regulations ) . Windows etc are okay IMO , but add a detail or 2 -- 2 matching $100 letterboxes ; your street number in a nice style , painted bright orange or even apricot , made from ply , and screwed or glued so it is 30mm 'out' ( protruding ) from the downstairs wall between the 2 windows ( maybe off-centre by 30cm for impact and interest ? ) OR maybe on the front fence . Then your idea of plants in big bright pots will really add too . There you go -- $2500 and some labour and some fun and it will look quite a bit better .