I love a QUALITY paint job. Few people know the ins and outs of a quality paint job but, a seasoned painter for INTERIORS will have many techniques and processes to dial up the end result. I love my painter and I listen closely to his advice and he is so expert (40 years) and good that he makes it look effortless. BUT IT'S NOT. Will find and post favorite picture of painted trim here. I think the secret is style and proportion of trim and then the quality of the finishing. Did you know most paint curing really needs 2 to 3 weeks to set up as a really good tough finish? "In a hurry" is the curse we mostly experience for improving interiors. I wonder sometimes how different things would be if people took the right amount of time to do things in the time frame related to that finishing task!

Excuse my duh-ness but i'm having difficulty trying to follow whats going on here. Are these two photos an exact replica of your house and pool ? If not a hasty sketch with dimensions could help a lot. By kitchen wall do you mean the wall behind the bar ? And where is the pool wall ? Are you considering the covered area as being "inside" ? Sorry for all those questions lol Sometimes when you have a design problem you need to turn it inside out or on it's head. If you can't beat it maybe embrace it by making a feature of it : i.e. contrast by having the lightest colored pool surround and a great blue or tile inside and under the overhang, something that will echo the water color ? If you have a great covered area as in photo you'll most likely be spending a lot of time there and it could be soothing to be able to sometimes retire into a darker inside. In my book, 10M isn't small and also contrasting two floor colors doesn't necessarily make a space seem smaller and confined and may in fact even open it up. Could it be that you've thought yourself into a box here ? Sometimes one needs to give it all a good shake up and see how it resettles.

Also take a look at Room and Board....they have several tables with different wood finishes or wood/steel/metal bases and a good selection of various tabletop materials. Also if you prefer a wood table, an area rug underneath the table could also help to break up all of the wood too.

There is no common link, no continuity that each dwelling share. i would introduce an element to both structures, borrowed fm the other, so for example the red brick and windows are the most striking design elements in the house, however the rendered garage with a parapet and no visible roof may as well be from another planet, I would brick up the front piers aside the door, with matching red brick, and then I'd install some post and beam rafters that could extend over beyond the garage door, almost like a flat eave, however just beams, no roof, and paint it chacoal, I'd then link a path from th garage to the house, and create the same detail at the porch entry of the home, same beams, colour and materials, so it looks like they belong on the same property. also, perhaps a little scary to consider, i would render the wall in between the door and the first window only, and paint the front door in the matching blue. Windows I'd go charcoal as per th beam structure, and apply a stained timber batten to the flat parapet above the garage, so paint that black, then fix timber battens vertically wh enough spacing to see that black shadowline, it will modernise it, emphasising the elongated design, which is both contemporary and popular, and tie this timber detail into the house with a generous deck. Both timbers will link, over scale th deck, perhaps stagger a step or two, as the garage is over scaled also. remove the fence, and landscape the corner with over scaled shrubbery, a meandering path to help invite ppl between the two structures., the visual disconnection is the fence, but it translates into everything else. if a fence must be, then consider a half height one, or an informal row of sleepers as uprights, to softly define the yard.