Funny enough, I just planted some Sedum ternatum which prefers part shade. I'm not sure how it would do in dense shade. It's also a US native, which I was very excited to discover. It has such a pretty shape to it. I planted it on the north side of my house and it seems to be doing well so far. I included a link about it below. Here is a link that might be useful: Sedum ternatum

Did a similar thing in our first house. Lucky for us I was working at a floorcovering wholesaler at the time so got a great deal on some commercial carpet with a pattern I loved. Got it cut into on chunk about 12 x14 and another about 5x9. Had the edge bound and a non-stick coating applied to the back of the smaller piece. The smaller one when at the stair landing (reason for non-stick) and we put a nice carpet pad under the larger piece and that went in the living room with about 2- 3' to spare around the perimeter of three sides (fourth was open to entry, stairs and kitchen.

You could do a google search for "wet bar backsplash" and see what comes up, but my guess is you'll want it to be either the same tile as the rest of the bs, or a feature tile/design. We can be more helpful if you provide images of what you have, and a budget you're trying to stick to. You might want to reconsider the valence - a little outdated. The image below is from the web site at the link. Here is a link that might be useful: Image

I was thinking of hanging the curtains from the ceiling in the box? Rather than on the small wall again the picture gives an illusion there is space above the blinds but its the ceiling there is no space