I'm thinking tall and skinny as well. My first thought was that while tall and skinny works for the placement of the pots, it wouldn't work in those tall narrow urns, making it TOO tall and skinny and bottom-empty to boot. But now, in looking again and again at your photo, I'm rethinking that. Perhaps these pots will complement and enhance the tall and skinny look. My first thought was ilex sky pencil. I'm not a great admirer of its form, but it does work well for these types of spots, and I believe it would be hardy and do well in the light conditions as well. You would have to double check the hardiness as I don't recall the exact zone off the top of my head. I think it calls for full sun but I grew one in part sun (in a pot) and it did fairly well. I ended up giving it away when I found something better for the spot. I'm also thinking of ilex Castle Wall and/or Spire, which I think are more pyramidal. Not sure again exactly of zone or conditions, or even if this is "skinny" enough, but just going off the top of my head here. Maybe ilex Earlibright? Again, sorry, not sure of zone, but I think this is a fairly narrow, upright form and would give great winter interest (if you have a pollinator nearby). I seem to have ilex on the brain today, lol. As a person who is terrified of pruning, I don't know if any of these would be amenable to pruning for size. I would think the Sky Pencil and Castle Wall would be, but not sure about the Earlibright. And this may all be for nought if the zones aren't right.... Oh, one last thought - yucca? Golden Sword is quite nice, and while in bloom would give you the height you are looking for. And I think it is zone-4 hardy, so might work for you over winter as well. Not sure about sun exposure. I did grow these in pots on my back patio for winter interest, and they looked great over the winter, but died on me in spring from some kind of (I think) fungal thing. Please let us know what you decide. This is kind of a challenge, in terms of perennials! Dee

It has a slight pitch. The family room has two doors, and there is also a door you can't see that leads into the breakfast room. That part of the house is really open, the kitchen is right there too. There are lots of windows that shed light from other directions into the family room. It is also open to the foyer, which has a double door entry which is half glass, plus even the windows from the upper hall cast light into that area. The formal rooms are more closed off, so they don't cast light into the family room. If your room is open, I bet you will be fine with light.

Thanks to all the recent posts, it feels like there is consensus on the scale needing to be bigger (plants and furniture) and more contrast to bring it together. I agree with both those ideas! The large shrubs aren't going anywhere anytime soon, although they could be trimmed back some, because of the reasons P.D.Schlitz mentioned. I've been shocked and delighted by how many birds (even a humming bird!) have visited our home, and they need those areas to thrive. But I am planning to fill in some of the gaps along the outside edge of the wall so it looks less straggly and more unified, probably with camellias since they are doing well in our back garden and evergreen where we live. The swing is also staying because my kids adore it (and it's more for swaying than swinging, doesn't bump into the back wall thankfully). But I want to lower it a little to make it easier to lounge on. Besides that, I have some great inspiration now to work with, and I really appreciate all of your ideas and advice! I will definitely post pictures when I have some meaningful updates. Gosh I wish real life were like the home improvement shows where boom, everything comes together in a matter of days :)

Jay W, I am a layperson, not a contractor or engineer. But I have a similar space in my home that includes a door off the breakfast nook like yours does, but has a huge picture window where you have the 3 windows. I also thought we could surely easily bump out into the space created by our roof overhang, which is, like yours, over a concrete slab. My inquiries resulted in me learning that in our case, the little concrete freebie patio was not an extension of the actual concrete slab foundation of the house so we would have to tear that out and pour a whole new section of foundation that would have to be tied in. And that wasn’t going to be cheap. It would’ve gained us about three feet of space in our family room and wasn’t close to being worth the big pile of money it would cost. We scrapped the idea very quickly. Your situation may be different.