I think your instinct is spot on - the grey does not go with your lovely house at all! You said yourself, 'the grey craze', why follow the herd? Perhaps you should question why you want a 'contemporary colour' instead of one of the many choices which will enhance your beautiful period house. You don't see lovely pink Suffolk cottages, or the black and white half timbered houses characteristic of some areas daubed with grey because it's the latest fad.

Thanks for your kind comments! We have designed and completed the work on the garden ourselves (mainly my husband) so it means a lot. It's the dome bit that needs the colour, the base will have wood around the bottom and some tiles on the top. Thanks for finding those pictures, like the aqua one

After carrying out all that work and the expenditure I would not bother adding more to the workload by adding a porch. You have a modern fronted dwelling so IMO there’s no need to clutter the front by adding a porch especially one with Oak beams as it’s not in keeping with the existing house. That is more suitable to period properties which yours is not. You do need some steps for ease of entering the front door and I would make this a feature perhaps by having a large semi circle double height step if it allows. Perhaps add the step in a blue brick which would tone in nicely with the front door.

I guess this will come down to how much you want to spend, if you are prepared to do an extension out the back then assume you are comfortable with some structural work. Also if you are happy to lose the garage or some of it you actually have a much larger space to work with. If it were my house and I had the budget to do a complete ‘rejig’, i would do the following: 1. Push the bathroom, utility area and storage areas into the garage but still leaving a garage door with a much smaller ‘garage’ space for stuff we just dump in the garage. Add a door if possible to the garage much closer to the front door to access the storage area. Access the bathoorm and utility via the currently under stairs door. 2. Now move the kitchen to the right into the space currently occupied by the bathroom and study, creating space for a nice size island, room fo an American fridge freezer and tall cupboards etc. 3. Move the study to the left hand side, which would run from the garden wall where the first bifolds end down to the existing vertical beam column, effecitvely making use of this as part of that study and therefore it isnt just a column in the middle of the room. 4. You will be left with a large L shaped kitchen lounge diner, where you can either choose to have a play area in front of the kitchen or tv snug and dining area to the left of it or vice versa. Whatever suits! Obviously this is without seeing the actual spaces and room dimensions to see how much open space you would get but looks like could work from your floor plan. Maybe too much work though :)