Hi Leah. As you like timber what about using a decorative timber screen to fit that space? Enough decoration to give privacy, but open enough so light can come through. Kind of like a picture that draws your eye rather than an ugly square of glass. I'm sure houzz has an article showing these decorative screens in various styles. I have some typical geometrical chinese wooden windows in mind, but I'm sure you could find some laser cut specialist to do your design in metal, or a carpenter to do it in wood.

Perhaps it is just the limitations of photography, but to me it seems really shut in and as though the trees are keeping me away/baring the door. I would not want to go and knock on that front door.

Looks good. The way to get the timber look without the maintenance is to use the Millboard Decking. Just hose it down.www.millboarddeck.com.au

My suggestion is a little outside the box but I'm thinking that's what you're really looking for through this post and it does successfully keep costs down while working effectively with your floorplan. Assuming the living room has a reasonable boundary setback at the left-hand side, create a path along this boundary to a new entry door behind the living room. You'd need to carefully plan your planting, paving and lighting to make it work, particularly at night, but with care, it could be an effective solution at minimal cost. The following link is to a recently sold property in Perth's inner suburbs with this same arrangement - I was looking for a photo showing it lit at night - so inviting - but unfortunately that image has been taken down. 24 St Vincents Ave https://www.google.com/maps/@-31.935112,115.82416,3a,28.116278y,80.22554h,-6.3166046t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1s4OIOyx_m_OZpOVYCG8fbFw!2e0