Would this letterbox style suit a brick face fence?

So we have finally found a bricklayer to do our front fence. And just when I thought I had the letterbox sorted out, I came across these custom made ones. Although, they look very modern and I am worried might not suit our traditional facade. What do you think? Should we stick with the original ones I had in mind?

We’ve got a 1.1m long wall to work with. What combination do you think would look best?

Also, what are your thoughts on A4 letterbox slots with no ability to drop off small parcels? Is that the standard these days? I have a love/hate relationship with junk mail and we don't and will not be having any magazine/newspaper subscriptions.

Our house and future brick fence:

These are the letterboxes I was thinking of getting initially...

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What style letterbox for our brick fence?

Which one of these letterboxes would you recommend for our 1.1m wide x 1.6m high brick wall in between the driveway and front path?

These are all from Bunnings. The top left one measures W:260 x H:355 x L:255 and the rest are all W:175 x H465 x L:255

Has anyone had any experience with these galvanised steel letterboxes? Do they rust?

Would love to hear your thoughts...

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Brick fence decisions - please help!!!

We are getting our first brick fence quote next week, so this might, just might, be happening in the near future... Yet, I am still undecided if we should go with a 1.6m or 1.8m high fence, and 300mm or 600mm tall plinth/wall in between the brick pillars. What do you think looks better?

TOP: 1.8m pillars with 600mm plinth
BOTTOM: 1.6m pillars with 300mm plinth

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Front fence - getting the proportions right

The brickkie I organised to meet last Saturday never turned up. I've managed to find another bricklayer who came as a recommendation from a friend. We should hopefully get him around to our place in the next few weeks. But before I see him I would like to figure out what wall-in-between-the-pillars-height to go with and whether to go with a flush wall/pillar look, or to indent the wall a bit? I would love to hear your thoughts on what to look for when deciding the height of the wall, and how to get the proportions right.

I am still hoping/wanting a hedge behind the fence, on the inside of the front yard.

A flush wall with the pillar fence.

This one to me looks out of proportion and unfinished. Which is what I would like to avoid, hopefully...

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Tiny gaps and gate-less brick fences

So we decided to not do a gate because neither the sliding nor the swing would be practical. The swing gate wouldn't allow us to park any cars in the driveway, and the sliding gate would make the little gate to the front door unusable.

But now the dilemma is, what do we do with the fence part in between the front path and the driveway? Do we have a couple of 350x350 pillars with a plinth in between, a solid wall.

Also do we remove the brick pillar in between the driveway and fence on the right hand side or leave it in there, even though we are not having a gate?

I would love to hear your thoughts. Below are the drawings of some of the options I've been able to come up with... To be honest, they all look weird to me.

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Kerb appeal - front yard fence and landscaping. HELP!

I would love a simple, formal front yard with evergreen plants and shrubs.

Am not a fan of anything high maintenance, which means no flowers. Although hedges require regular trimming, from what I have been reading (Paul Bangay, thanks to KL and Heidi for the recommendation!!!) depending on the species they usually require trimming anywhere between two to six times a year. We can deal with that :)

Also, even though the path to the front doors has not yet been done or even decided on, we will match it to the width of the front doors, which leaves 1.2m between the path and the driveway for us to work with.

Please ignore the fact that in my drawings the path does not line up with the front doors. I clearly messed up, but I can assure you this was not my intention and it will not happen in real life :)

This is what I am thinking of for a start. Would love to hear your thoughts, feedback and advice, as always.

"When planning a hedge, the most important thing to consider is scale. Many people get it wrong. Some make the hedge too large and dominant for the site they are working with, dwarfing all other planting and overwhelming the other elements of the garden..."

As a starting point, I am thinking of a 30cm x 30cm hedge on the inside, and 60cm x 60cm hedge on the outside. Do you think the balance of proportion and scale work with the house? Does it work with the architectural style of the house? Would smaller shrubs instead of the lower (inner) hedge look better?

Here is a pic of our front yard as it is:

The fence footings have already been done, but we are still unsure of what sort of fence to go with. We originally thought a brick pillar fence, but I am now thinking it might look to heavy and full on with our brick house. What do you think? I am even considering a low line rendered fence with a hedge behind it. See, I am obsessed with hedges. But then I think about the practicality of trimming the hedge against a fence .... Eeeek!

Quotes are from Paul Bangay's Guide to Plants 2011.

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How close is too close?

We will be having a brick fence in the front. When it comes to brick pillars bow close together between the two is too close?

If we make the path to the front doors wider and match it to the width of the doors the gap between the two pillars will be smaller.

I also wanted the driveway to only be the inner width of the garage door.... Should we perhaps make it wider so that we only have one brick post in between the two gates? Or should we still have two posts, even if they are close together?

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