Most Fired Earth paint colours are available in masonry paint, it's expensive (compared to standard masonry paint) but goes on a dream, with great coverage. Gives you a great choice of colours, we went with Stone Ocre, although on a more modern house, it looks much nicer than white or magnolia (IMHO).

Light colours always help to make a garden pretty so maybe try a pastel colour. I'm personally in love with a sort of light mint colour, this works really well with white (but any pastel will) cornflour is nice too for gardens as it is more of a contrast to the leaves. Growing a climber up some trellis on the wall might be an idea too, honeysuckle smells very sweet and attracts butterflies but any climber again will work. I have attached the mint colour I meant just for clarity, a word of caution would be that it can look a little clinical so to be used in moderation.

Thanks Colour Happy. Plasterer has been in already but only plastered where needed so I'm assuming that means we don't need to plaster behind wall paper (some of which had to be removed for the rewiring) and Painter seems happy enough to do remainder of filling/smoothing walls but thanks for the tip, I'll definitely check again with them. Re sisal, no dogs but small kids at home so need to stick to softer/more standard carpet!

Ha, funnily enough I tried some colours out on your walls in photoshop yesterday, which doesn't mean a thing, since it always looks different on screen, and I too thought that Ammonite worked well. Still, do try it out. Painted the skirting All White. Threw in some pattern with cushions, a framed poster will reflect light and is more interesting than a mirror (which loads of people use) and I thought that you could perhaps place a different cabinet for the TV along the wall next to the fireplace.