Wow! red or maroon are very strong colours. Without knowing your tastes, your furniture, your flooring your walls or even your artwork, it is very hard to give you advice. Red - strong, vibrant, passionate, hot. Works with most wood colours except a cherry wood which has reds in it. Works with the non-colours - black, white, grey. Works with high saturation colours and clashing colours such as turquoise or hot pink. Maroon - muted, calming, moody, dark. Works with most wood colours except possibly black which would be dark on dark. Works with muted colours best of the same tone category: olive green, yellow ochre. Likes gold and silver. More elegant

If you want your plant to grow above the balcony edge, you need one that grows tall but is pretty resistant to wind and sun. How about bamboo in a planter. They grow tall and do a great job (all year round) of hiding what is next door. They are fairly low maintenance and self-sufficient once established. Cons: They do cause a lot of leaf drop - some species look pretty awful in the winter... but you can find some that are beautiful. Go for a clumping bamboo.

I love the exterior lights in the first photograph! It's a great and simple way to give your property a major makeover with something so settle. We talk about exterior lights and 8 other ways to easily add curb appeal to your property in our latest blog post. Read about it here: http://goodfellasconstruction.net/blog/9-ways-to-add-instant-curb-appeal

i must say your polls are interesting and gives lot of great ideas.....keep it up!!