The best way to 'hide' something that you don't like is to draw the eye elsewhere. The screens etc that have been recommended with vines over them are not a good idea. I would suggest 3 trees within the lawn area and not in a perfect triangle. One could be placed in front of the problem area. Eventually you could make a garden bed of decent sized proportion, that would have all trees within and underplant the trees with the same low plant throughout - like a good native grass like plant. The use of the 1 plant will make the area look even bigger and will provide unity to the design.

Edric there is so much potential in this space. At the moment the different mixture of river pebbles, bricks and pavers is visually breaking up the space. The river pebbles are not trafficable so they are limiting the usable space. I would start by removing pebbles, pavers and bricks. Remove the polycarbonate roof over the pergola. I would build a composite timber deck between the brick walls to maximise the usuable space, with the top of the deck in line with the top of the sill bricks for the sliding door to make transitioning between inside and outside easier. Some products such as ModWood decking are low maintenance, splinter free and are available in a range of colours to complement the brickwork. Once you have decided on the best ModWood colour I would repaint the pergola structure to match the decking. I would soften the look with a over sized pot in each corner growing a deciduous creeper, such as an ornamental grapevine or wisteria over your pergola, and furnish with an outdoor setting and a market umbrella. It will be like adding an outdoor room to your home that is naturally shady in summer, and sunny in winter, and will get a lot more use than it currently gets. http://www.modwood.com.au/decking/

I would go with the same style railing as the front of the house. Place the fence across (with a gate in it) after the second pillar, between the exterior light and the window if you can. You might need to make a larger "platform" with perhaps decking, to accommodate fence swing. If you use decking it might look nicer if you drop a step from the tiles. Possibly could extend your tiles along a bit and have gate sit on the tiles. Your existing wooden steps could then be put in or, do a couple of steps again, more of a platform, then more steps so you are spreading the distance down towards your back yard. If you hinge the gate behind the pillar that may look nicer and swing away from house towards the side fence and not to get in the way of the window (if window is an issue possibly a sliding gate?).

Hi Laura, I also love your inspiration photo. I think you're on the right track for what you want. It looks like an early summer image due to the jacaranda flowering so I would try and get a bit more colour in the planting and spread your flowering season to be as long as you can by choosing winter, spring and summer flowering plants. It appears that you have the ability to build one side of the garden up as you have a foudation below the fence. You shouldn't build it up in front of the actual fence as it will eventually rust out. If you do build it up in part, you could build seating into this to make two uses out of the retaining. You could intersperse this with the cortens to reduce the cost as that wont work so well for seating. Recycled timber could do the job and maybe mix with some gabions, which you can do on the cheap yourself if you have a source of rubble or stones. C.