Sorry I have been absent from this forum for awhile. I apologize for not reading the original post more carefully as to the size requirements. Just as a note, Loropetalum chinense is available in two sizes other than jumbo. Purple Diamond tops out at four feet. Purple Pixie at about two feet by two feet. Again, I have no idea if they are winter hardy for you, but if so, they are strikingly beautiful shrubs with four season interest: very showy spring flowers with purple foliage, good blue-green summer foliage, brilliant red coloring mixed into the green in fall, and evergreen in winter. IF they are hardy, Camellia sasanqua Hot Flash and Shishigashira will mature at around 3' by 4' and are shrubs of the highest caliber in my opinion. Good, clean, evergreen foliage and lovely fall/winter flowers. Osmanthus Goshiki with evergreen green/cream variegated foliage is a fairly dwarf shrub, topping out at 3 to 4 feet. It grows so slowly, it could easily be kept pruned to any size you like. Osmanthus heterophyllus Variegata gets larger, but again is a very slow grower, so can be kept where you want it sizewize. It just might be my very favorite shade plant with clean, sprakling white variegation on dark green leaves. It just lights up its space planted among white hydrangeas. Again, I have no idea about hardiness for you with any of these shrubs. One holly I would also recommend is Ilex cornuta O'Spring. It has yellow and green variegated shiny leaves and is gorgeous.

Hmmm. Maybe podocarpus? You're specifying a rather vertical shape. I'm not too familiar with zone 9 plants, so can't help too much. Also you could try: Anise-tree Banana shrub (Michelia figo) Carolina Cherrylaurel ('Bright 'n Tight') Sasanqua or Japonica camellia Tea-olive, fragrant (Osmanthus fragrans) might need more sun. Escallonia (needs more sun??) Japanese Ternstroemia (Ternstroemia gymnanthera) I'm sure there are many, many more. visit your local nursery or botanical gardens.

Skimmia is a good choice, but you will need both a male and female clone for berry production. Skimmias NEED shade and even moisture to avoid damage from mites. Sarcococca is another great shade shrub choice - several species with varying heights to choose from but all will produce intensely fragrant small white flowers in late winter, often followed by black or dark red berries. Other possibilities include rhododedrons, evergreen azaleas, nandina, aucuba and for non-evergreen choices, kerria, ribes (flowering currants), shrub dogwoods, or hydrangeas.

OP is back ;-) I appreciate all the answers I've gotten and I realize that I didn't give you enough to work with. In the first picture, you see the spot. The distance between the house and the hedge is 5 feet and 9 inches. The window is facing north and there's a public walk/bike path on the other side of the hedge (so more or less right outside the window) as you can see in the second picture: The hedge is carpinus betulus and not particularly dense, especially not in the winter: The room (behind the window) is going to become our bedroom. The window sits rather low (knee-height) and it gets very dark here in the winter (from 3.30pm to 8.30am), so when the lights are on, we'd feel rather exposed :-( Blinds would be ok, but I'd also like some kind of plant outside the window that together with the hedge would make it less easy to see every little detail in our bedroom when the lights are on and the blinds open. I'm afraid I have no idea whether I have acidic soil... I'll look up the suggestions you've all given me, but please feel free to share your opinion now that you have more information.