some ideas

I would remove the hedge and the circular bed. Return it to lawn. You are only hiding the entrance which seems unfriendly.

Without seeing the entire front of the house, no useful suggestions are possible.

Without seeing the rest of the picture, it looks like it might be a good spot for an upright Japanese maple tree or one of the smaller magnolia trees. The yew shrubs won't mind some shade.

Well, suggestions were made. Whether they are useful--that is enhance the entire house in its setting, which is landscaping as opposed to putting in a garden bed--is unknown.

Yes there are many smaller magnolias that will do fine in zone 5. If you want to explore them, have a look at the Conrad Art Glass gardens in Wisconsin at this link.

Julia I completely understand your point. However, unfortunately "landscape" refers to the area of land around your house and usually refers to the shapes and structural elements of plants and hardscape and how they relate to the lay of the land and shape of the home, as opposed to a garden bed. While I can understand why you wouldn't want to post a photo of your home on the Web, that's all that can really be shown to get some landscape advice. Perhaps you could disguise it somehow. Kinda unlikely that anyone will actually know where it is . . . I never have run across a home I've seen posted on the Web. As for the rudeness, well just say, "It takes all kinds" and move on, or else maybe, "Perhaps I am misunderstanding the tone" if you are an optimist! But understandable if you don't want to post, I understand your reticence.

In general, from the window into your home that you have shown, it looks like you have an entrance walkway to your front door, and one would generally not want to hide that or block the view as those shrubs do that you are planning on ripping out. So perhaps a couple of shrubs that stay small or a small tree, then underplanted with ground covers. However, if you really don't know what you are doing, perhaps just do grass until you have a clear idea of what you want. I got most of my best ideas from walking around my neighborhood and noticing thing that folks did that looked good.

The reason those shrubs were problematic for you is that they were too big for the space as they matured. That's a common mistake that folks make who don't know what they are doing. They don't plan for the eventual mature size of the plants they chose and plant and then they are forever trying to keep them small when they don't want to be. Fortunately plant breeders have come up with many small and dwarf varieties of plants for home owners. Be sure to seek those out and read the labels on the plants that give the mature sizes. You can often also look online to get that information, and now with cell phones with search engines and Web connections to take along, you have a lot more resources at your fingertips. Also, you can search online for types of garden plans, like "walkway garden plan" and find complete plans with plant suggestions. https://www.bhg.com/gardening/plans/special-spots/