Hi , I would check the balcony timber for rot.Especially the connection back to the house before painting.The front balcony looks to be cantilevering from inside the house.

If these need replacing it will impact the exterior design.

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Hi, I think the biggest change would be replacing the deck fence with stainless steel wire. We did this last your on my Mums balcony and our family holiday house. Massive transformation. Spend money there getting rid of all the dark green painting the deck edge to a cedar colour or tone into the bricks rather than rendering bricks. Replace blinds and a modern front door if your budget stretches that far. Here are some before and after pics.

There looks to be a fence or wall to the left of the garage , in a nice stained timber -- see how clean and modern that looks , and compliments the bricks . The problem -- I doubt you can strip and stain the existing balconies timber -- but there does appear to be some doubt as to the timbers condition anyway .

So here's my plan of attack -- if the timber is needing some or all replacing , replace it with stained timber uprights ( the white rails may be okay , and/or they may actually be metal supports ) . So go that nice stained timber .

But if the timber is okay and you want a change on a budget , just repaint everything currently green , in a charcoal .

And no matter what option -- new fabric on the sunshades , or just bin them altogether -- the roof looks like it has an okay overhang , but I assume they were installed ( years ago haha ? ) as they were needed , but they may have been more visual ? Anyway , that's a no-brainer -- do something , almost anything , with them !

And no matter what option , consider changing the garage doors with stained timber ones , the same shade as the fence/wall . A touch of class , and would really tie in if you did the veranda uprights in the same stain , but it would still work with charcoal 'upstairs' , or stainless wires , or smoked glass panels . Just a thought !

Thanks for the advice. Have spoken to my husband and agree with commenters that maybe we were projecting onto this house rather than working with what we have. One question- provided we replaced balconies to stained timber along with the garage doors, what colour would you change the roof? We also have some budget for the driveway, ideas or colours for this?

And yes, awnings have already been removed! Not sure why they were installed in the first place

The driveway is pebble aggregate ? An expert could confirm , but I suspect you'd be better to keep it , as I doubt you can re-colour it , unless you lay a fresh top , and even that probably won't 'take' to the existing aggregate .

Balconies , gardens , maybe garage doors , I understand , but the drive matches the brick both era and looks wise , so I'd leave it as it is personally .

Get the driveway pressure washed then review. You will need to get quotes on resurfacing as it depends on how much needs to be removed to recoat.

We have just spent Aprox 30 okay on painting our exterior. From our learnings. I would say only change what you need or hate. Our house was pale pink and gutters a faded purple and peeling. With yours I would do dark grey/ ebony for your balcony. Have the garadge doors sprayed white and paint your front door to match. I was amazed how little time it took for painters to undercoat and spray paint the garage. I don’t normally like brick. But yours looks quite nice. I would probably look at having your roof sprayed a dark grey too. And replace the door to something more modern if the budget allowed. I found out from the hardware store the wood can be cleaned and stained using a decking stain sealer (for our retaining wall it’s approx 300). Would love to see what you guys do. Good luck.