I think the interior of the rooms can be brightened/tweaked with lots of different approaches. Here a few examples: Photo one: bright, zen inspired furniture, lighter flooring(terazzo/carpet/wood). Organic colours.. Photo two: same thing, notice the bed fairly close the window. You could do that by having a pony wall/installation behind the bed as in photo three. Obviously not in wood, since your ceiling has enough of it present. Photo four: if you keep the wooden ceiling you can create interest and break up the stripe monotony with an interesting/large fixture.

I think you've had some great suggestions already. I like your original idea of painting the garage door a sage colour which you could then pick up elsewhere with painted planters/window cils. A nice outdoor light above the house number will help to draw focus. Whilst I do generally prefer 3 panel glazed windows I think due to the fact the neighbours either side have ones similar to your current ones I'd go for more or less the same. The only change I'd make is ensuring you mirror the split top window across all of them so it ties in nicely with the top garage windows. A completely new driveway would probably make the greatest difference to the curb appeal. Something that sweeps around towards the door would be nice. You could then plant up the corner patch to help provide some visual interest and depth.

Hi Edwina, It's going to be the greenery that makes a big difference to this. Plants are used for softening designs all the time both exterior and interior. I love the garage doors and think ever have done a great job too - well done. I love the idea of rendering it but think you have to work with the rest of the road so if no one else has its probably not a great idea :( Regarding the images of changes on the property - I offer a 3D visualisation package that I would be happy to give you a price for if you drop me a person message on the profile page. This will depend on the budget you have as to its worth for you. All the best, Gina

Thank you to everyone for your recommendations! I was thinking grey would be good to cool down all the wood, so will probably go for a grey sofa, maybe a neutral rug (it has to be an oriental one) and some green or blue accents. Still not decided for curtains... @Carrie There will definitely be a lot of plants, mostly hanging ones! A second chair is a good idea, thank you! @AtNo19The windows are north-east facing, a bit of sun in the morning, there is also some light coming through from the attic and the adjoining room (there is a window inside the house - this wall used to be an outer wall before an extension), but it is not a bright room. @Beano: Smooth plaster was my first choice as well, but we have done that in a few rooms already, and painted the clad in others, we have decided to keep the wood in this room for now, since it is easier and we want to keep a bit of the character of the house.