For some reason I am not able to upload pictures right now, so I am going to try to describe this in words.....

Existing decks/ outdoor living space consisted of screened porch on main story of house which is second story from the back( sloping lake lot). This was held up with 10 ft round fluted woooden columns underneath, which formed a covered patio down below. The ceiling of this area was covered with deckbrella, which made it a nice outdoor "room" with a finished appearance. This was original to the house, which is Virginia wood mold brick. To right and left of screened porch the second owners added decks that communicate with the screened porch via screen doors, and both these decks have stairs down to the backyard patio on one side and a sidewalk path to the tennis court on the other side. The poorer quality of these secondary decks has always bothered us. This summer we ripped put all the railing and put in new wood railing with black square aluminum pickets and on the tennis court side we built a new deck for a built in swim spa. The underskirt of this deck, which is about 4.5 feet above the ground at the most sloped end, is brick -- so it looks permanent and substantial. We used kiln dried, clear quality, planed pine for the new deck with invisible fasteners. It looks great, and the new railing on the old decks now matches the new so it all looks the same.

When the builder was examining the structure, he found one of the columns supporting the screened porch was seriously compromised with a crack. We then replaced all the wooden vertical supports for decks and porch with steel, which is being wrapped in azek in square columns with Georgian paneling detail that are a good bit larger than the wooden columns were ( decided to run downspouts through the columns so that

made everything a bit chunkier).

Now, finally, for anyone who has made it this far, lol, the color questions. The previous color of the exterior of the porch, the pecky cypress interior porch walls, and all railings was a very DARK brown. The columns underneath were a putty color to match the trim of the house. The deck floorboards were a grey-taupe--- a really ugly color scheme.

I picked out opaque stain in a lighter mushroom color (Porter acri-shield Granite) which looks good with the black aluminum pickets. But the lighter color I picked out for the floors now looks almost the same color as the railings! We have strong sun in Georgia and the light is making these colors look too similar. Now I am in doubt about the entire color scheme. We now have very formal columns so the informal "woodsy" scheme I had in mind now seems silly!

Should I paint all or most of the vertical stuff--- columns, handrails, exterior of screened porch---- in the putty color of the exterior trim and go with the darker granite color on the floors/ decks? Or a different dark color? And do a different, lighter brown or green (not putty) on the interior walls of the screened porch? Or paint the columns putty color, the handrail granite ( mushroom ) and WHAT for the deck boards?

Any help very much appreciated--- will try to get photos up but would like general advice even without them. ...thx in advance.