You need light and bright. Being rented is tough. First change out the drapes with to the floor length. Cream with a horizontal stripe of brown to match or furniture. This will 1. get rid of the horrid things hanging there 2. pull the initial visual to that wall instead of the floor. Tall and high colors ( mango, aqua, yellow) decorations on your mantel with shorter cream and brown items. Then a large square table in the middle, painted distressed cream, with high color items setting on it. DIY project or Ikea. Green is the number one calming color, just don't let it put you to sleep. :)

Hi anne, that's what I was originally thinking, my issue is what colour I use for the 'pop' :) I keep coming back to a teal/turquoise colour (it's one of my favourite colours!!), I love blues, purples, teal/turquoise - many on here have suggested yellow but I'm really not sure about it. Here in New Zealand we're in Autumn, nearing Winter so uncertain about the yellow. I found these cushions that I've fallen in love it, and wondering how I could make these work.. do I try teal and mustard together, as an interior designer suggested?

Thanks for all the great ideas everyone and sorry I didn't explain the polycarbonate a bit better :) This is along the lines of what we'll be using... http://www.psp.co.nz/building-brands/corrugated-sheeting/suntuf-polycarbonate The area is an absolute sun trap and we're hoping to use it as an extension to our living space, especially on rainy days! I've just sent my husband out to get a few pots of different stains for is to try - darkest brown (cedar) and a lighter brown (rustic oak) both by Cabots + the black we already have. Hopefully we can decide between one of those! I probably should have mentioned we will have black aluminium pool fencing running along the top of the second retaining wall - so the real question is do we keep everything black (pool fencing, horizontal fence, retaining walls and pergola) or do we go with a dark (or even light) brown for the pergola and retaining walls.... We just keep going around in circles at the moment. Decisions, decisions! Thanks again :)

Thanks for the replies! My wife suggested we talk to a local real estate agent, so i think that is a good idea... just that Im not sure how helpful they are likely to be if we arent selling yet :) As for saving for our dream house, I dont disagree, however if doing this up nicely over the next ~5 years or so while we live here nets us some extra in the eventual sale, then that of course will help us as well. Interesting thing happened today actually. I got a knock on the door and one of the older neighbours asked if he could take some lemons from the tree. I of course said yes. Anyway he was telling me he had lived in the street for 40 years. I asked him if the house had always looked like this, and he said no that ~30 years ago the old old owner did a massive renovation and pulled off the timber and put up the bricks and gutted the inside of the house. Interesting stuff!