Not sure where you're located, but a gravel driveway may help to soften the house versus asphalt or concrete. Soften up the area with grasses. Here's a link to a photo of grasses with a hot color palette http://www.spacemakerpress.com/catalogue/catimages/st05imgb.jpg You can always choose a more muted color palette as well. I would definitely tier the plan heights so they're taller against the house and gradually get lower. It would help to bring the house to human scale and not appear towering above. The pathway could be in a natural stone - the same color as the gravel driveway (if you can do gravel).

Bronan, Love the black trim around the window and door. I also think you have a nice start with the urns. Would you consider painting those black? You can also add striped hostas in around the base of the little trees. It will make them more prominent and hostas work well in formal spaces. They will be happy to share urn space until the tree gets too big but then you get a bigger urn anyway. I think the added greenery with the white stripes on the leaves will be beautiful with your house colors. Check with the garden nursery near you as some hostas are shade only and others can take some sun. They might suggest something even better... I don't know your budget but I would also suggest brick between the stone squares so guests don't have to leap frog to the porch :-) Good luck. I think you will have a nice space.

Hi Wafster, We sell Glowstone (Australian trade mark) in Australia and also do some export. Check out details in our website www.nite-glo.com . In the right application, glow in the dark (photoluminescent, charged by sunlight or lights with reasonable uv content) can look and work fantastically. In other situations, a customer may have unreasonable expectations of the performance of the product and can be disappointed. Looking at the photos displayed recently on Houzz, they will definitely have been taken immediately after the glow products have been charged, and look their brightest. Also modern digital cameras enable low levels of light to be picked up, and corresponding photos may look quite a bit brighter than actual observation by eye. In the photos, one has to say WOW, but taken into a home, perhaps not fully charged, with some delay before viewing, maybe with the eyes not adjusted for night time vision, the result may not be as spectacular. Quite a few of our customers are concreters around Australia who use Glowstone for embedding into driveways, paths, around pools etc. If you would like more information or wish place an order, get in touch with me at info@nite-glo.com Charles Hrubos

With any post war house built in the 50's the connection from in to out is non existent. Depending on where living rooms are located i would take some of the fantastic windows out and replace them with French doors, or bi folding doors and connect the house to the site. The colour scheme from Karen is perfect to lift the kerb appeal and give it a modern twist. With land costing more than houses these days and the fact that you seem to have quite a big block, after looking at paint colours, opening up the living dining kitchen areas to the outside with a roofed area. Even combining a flat roofed carport which will widen the house to the street making it seem a bigger house, can carry the new look with say an enclosed section for garden equipment, to the opposite side to the house, and if you are lucky enough to have that near the living area it can be used as both car cover and outdoor living. I always think a good landscape architect is worth their weight in gold, to give you a landscape plan, to suit the soil type, your skills level and your preference in planting. Divide up the exterior space to provide outdoor rooms under a tree, paths that lead to some special spot for kids, maybe even a veggie patch with a chock run, and make sure that you use the entire yard, front and back by enclosing part of the front yard in fencing which suits the style of the house, while providing some planting to the street. If allowed a gate structure to blend in with the house, a dedicated pathway with planting each side to the front door, fantastic fencing and consider natural materials like a hand laid stone fence with timber or powder-coated aluminium inserts, to give this house an entry, not sure where the front door is now, so that is not a good look. Gardens always enhance a house, they are never a wasted effort, and if you are not gardeners, make sure the landscape architect knows that and he will be able to select low maintenance plants. All the paint in the world will not give the desired effort that the garden will do to that paint work.