I don't blame you for wanting it - "Purple Leaf Honeysuckle" is beautiful, but unfortunately, it's a Japanese Honeysuckle! I have very fond memories of Honeysuckle. My grandmother taught me how to suck the nectar from them, and I've always loved their fragrance. But, now that I'm doing my own gardening, I've learned that the way those grow that it's more work than I care for to keep it under control and they are invasive, not only in our own gardens, but in the natural areas as well. I'm doing a garden restoration of a property with Japanese Honeysuckle growing on the fence line on all three sides of the back yard. If you had been with me the past two times, first for 5 hours and the second for 3 hours pulling honeysuckle out of shrubs, trying to dig up the roots and runners (it roots at each node and sends up sprouts) you'd never plant one ever! By the way, I'm only half-way down one side and will have to go back over what I've already done again once the leaves have fallen to be sure I haven't missed any. It's a nightmare. Surely I haven't gotten it all, so I'll have to use an herbicide carefully in the spring when it starts putting on new growth and try not to kill the good plants. Oh, another thing, the Honeysuckle was covered with berries and as I was working, birds were feeding and flying off to plant the seeds for someone else to deal with.

I would not use gravel as a general ground surface. Use mulch where you will need to walk but don't want to plant. If you use gravel, it's not only heavy to place in the first place, but it makes altering the scheme in the future potentially more difficult. Suppose you wanted to travel to dead northeast of where you were. The way roads are generally built (in a grid system) you might travel north, then east, then north, then east, and so on until you finally reach your destination. But you would be ticked off if you had to drive north, then east, then south, then west, then north, etc, in order to get to the same place! It would involve a lot of extra driving and seem to defy the rules of economy of motion. By the same token, when you're creating a bed line in a landscape, keep in mind that the line represents one edge of a broad path (the lawn). Unless you are specifically creating a special artistic effect, it seems odd and is usually less attractive to have a bed line that meanders and loops without specific purpose. They can add a "busy" quality. Try to stick with a line that does not seem to return you, even if momentarily, to the direction from whence you came. In other words, avoid a looping, wiggly bed line. :-) The other thing is, wherever that line meets another line (a walk, drive, fence, wall, etc. it should meet it at a 90* angle. (There are exceptions but I don't now want to complicate or confuse the point.) It will look much cleaner and behave better. I can't imagine that you'd want to maintain pointy wedges of grass tucked in next to the fence, either. Too, I don't think you'll want to have grass between the back fence and the shed. It's too confined an area. The absolute minimum distance between those objects should be 4' if you expect to use it as utility space. And that is tight. I would not have the raised planter immediately next to the shed. I'd put 4' min. there, too. Don't be afraid to explore additional bed layouts, too, just in case you can come up with simplification and improvements to the geometry.

I might look for a lamp that could move forward on the chest enough (without danger of toppling off) that the shade just hides that thermostat. Place it just a couple inches to the right of where it is now, or move the whole chest to the right a bit. It won't affect the functionality, esp if you use an LED bulb = no heat. Then look for a large piece of art, or a couple of stacked pieces to fill in over the right side of the chest, as shown above. Another idea is a gallery wall incorporating the thermostat: I would trade you those beautiful folded blankets for the star wars lego decor my grandson has decorated my house with! eta: I was just looking at it again and think Cyn's idea to switch the cabinets would work. You could then place the floor lamp in front of the thermostat and just ignore it.

I would leave the grey on the dormer, it references the same grey on the back of your house and you can see both sides at the same time. Because you've added white trim everywhere, I would paint both the bump-out and the front door alcove white. The alcove looks dark and with the addition of a black door, it will be even darker. White paint will brighten that area and will tie your whole house together.