Good afternoon everyone! We are blown away by the amazing response we have had from this community, thank you everyone for your feedback. We are especially grateful to Jonathan for his valuable feedback.. the idea is genius and makes so much sense! Thank you so much Jonathan for taking out the time to help us! I have never seen my husband so impressed by an idea so much!! I have attached a couple more photos showing view of the garage from the front of the house along with the entrance gate itself into the property. I have also attached a copy of our floor plan. We would really appreciate your thoughts on what we could to with the garage and front exterior in terms of: Garage walls - What do you think about the brick work? Worth keeping, or should we clad? Garage roof - We currently have an unsightly metal sheet. We don’t want to fully rebuild but we’ve seen light weight roofing for garages which look like tiling. Any suggestions or thoughts on this? Front exterior - We’re looking to improve kerb appeal of the house from the front, any ideas welcome (cladding, paint, stone work?) Windows - these are the original single pane windows which unfortunately come with poor insulation. Any thoughts on what to do for those? Further to the front patio suggestion, is it worth installing an entrance which leads straight into the kitchen through the current ‘Study’? See floor plan. (We are planning to extend the current kitchen by a further 2.5m towards the rear garden). Any ideas, suggestions and comments will be really appreciated, thank you for your help!

Hi ED, Thanks! Yep the eye of faith is crucial with winter garden makeovers! It'll be loads more plant dominated in a year or two. There's already a pump in the pond, which works as a standalone fountain, but can be adapted to power a cascade on the wall behind. We're having all sorts of whacky ideas like building a 'marble run' style sculpture incorporating all our favourite things, (archaeology, sci fi etc) or a commissioned metal sculpture that looks like a steel version of Virginia creeper.

Hi Kara, hmmm it needs plants. How do you feel about removing some of the block paving around the edges to create planting pockets? You could create a border at the front, to the left and under the front of the house, then fill it with planting. If thats too much, just remove some of it, mix in some compost with the soil to create a good start for any plants. You could plant lavender if it’s a sunny spot, Hebes are nice small shrubs, there’s loads you could plant. A climbing rose by the front door would look amazing. These pics show what I mean.

Hi there An offset wall near the front door can be tricky to work with, especially in a smaller space. It’s tempting to use it for coats, but this can quickly create a sense of clutter, especially important at ‘mouth of chi’ the key energy entry point into your home. From a feng shui perspective, we want this area to feel clear, welcoming and spacious so energy (and opportunity!) can flow in freely. Instead, consider using a mirror on that wall to visually “erase” the wall and bounce light around. Mirrors expand small spaces and symbolically open things up. Just make sure it doesn’t directly reflect the front door as we don’t want that fresh energy bouncing straight back out! If you really need coat storage, try a closed option like a slim cabinet to keep the area visually calm and energetically clear.