You have done a beautiful job of tucking plants into the crevices of your retaining walls. Your house trim color is perfect -- just slightly lighter in hue than the retaining wall blocks. First I would paint the big, flat gray wall slightly lighter than the blocks and slightly darker than the house trim. The concrete walk and stairs I would stain a mottled blend of the blocks and the house trim colors. Next would be to paint the railing black or the house body color. Now, think of the following as creating a light, airy trellise structure from the walk-level face of the (currently gray) wall to about 7' above the top of the wall (using 6x6" posts attached to the wall) with a corresponding line of posts sunk into the terrace level 2' in from the outside edge of the wall-attached posts. The inside posts would be about 6-8" higher than the outside posts. Put 4x4" wood to attach the outside line of posts to each other and do the same with the inside line of posts. Run wood pieces at the top of the two lines of posts from the inside line to the outside line at about a 45 degree angle. They would be cantilevered up at the terrace level. Across the top of the angled pieces create your top trellise boards which run parallel to the two lines of posts. OK. There you have your basic structure. You might want to extend the structure around to follow the street side of the terrace. You could then follow the suggestion of reom10 above about creating a bench-planter on the terrace side. Your spacing of the boards parallel to the gray wall and attached to the outside posts would determine how private you wanted your terrace to be. You might want to soften the terrace "floor" by using something irregular like flagstone with groundcover plantings between the stones. From the latticework on top of your structure you could hang seasonal flower baskets. Plant vines to go up the trellis and spill down the wall. How about planting a row of tall, narrow shrubs along the neighbor's fence above your terrace to help add to your privacy and make your yard feel less 'structured'? Or, how about patio table/s with umbrellas to block your neighbor's view? Anyway, you have a fun project ahead of you.

@kmkane... The "old thread" comments, at least from ME... aren't for any other reason than letting some contributors know, that the advice they might believe they are giving, may be moot. I know that when I 1st became involved on Houzz, I was glad when someone indicated that I may be addressing a question which had probably been answered months (if not years) ago. Helped me "learn" to check the original posting date before blathering on about an issue someone was no longer interested in.

Tess, I hope I'm not too late with the following advice. Don't ever paint brick. Your house is a simple design, exterior wise. Paint wont fix it. What's missing is a designed garden. Even the simplest brick house can look like an inviting, lived in home when it has a structured garden surrounding it. For less than the price of paint, invest in a landscaper to design a garden that will soften and greatly enhance your homes street appeal ...and add many $ in value. Painted brick detracts from value and has to be repainted periodically, defeating the purpose of brick, which is, no maintenance. Besides, your house, painted white or cream as has been suggested here, would stand out in the street like a proverbial sore thumb. Trust me, landscape, starting at the street boundary and leave the bricks alone. Good luck.

Oh I have not even touched the surface of fabrics that are available and beautiful. But, best to qualify further if you are recovering or buying new chairs before we get too excited or caught up in the beauty of the products. I love fabrics and the chemistry and technology that goes into modern day fabrics would astound most people. I'm not even talking about the residential fabrics like the Robert Allen collection I showed you. I'm talking about the fabrics for the hospitality and medical care industry. Now if you are interested in MODERN look fabrics I would send you to Maharam to look at their 20th Century Modern collection. Some of those are the real deal by Eames and Girard. Anyway, when you get further along in your plans then I can give better input.