Homedepot.com has a great selection of outdoor fabric for a great price of $6.50/yard. You may have to wait til next spring if their stock is depleted right now, but I bought some and I'm very happy with it. It sews very nicely, I made a cusion cover for my glider with it.

Thanks for your comments - The room is approx. 5m square - so not huge. The tiles being too busy for it is a concern I have too. It's very light and sunny - two of the walls are glass and slide back to the outside, one wall is French doors which lead inside the house and the other wall has windows looking into the house. The roof is louvre. Can't put up a picture as it's still being built! I'm still lusting after these tiles though...

I think you did great! Nice patio and the small plants at the wall helps blend in the wall a little bit without taking away from the view.

And I would be planting trees – real trees not dwarf versions of trees and no more palms (unless you want to have palm tree themed garden – in which case a lot more palms are needed). I am not advocating planting forest giants but there are trees that will provide shade, shelter and a sense of scale that you won't get from yuccas and buxus and mondo grass and succulents alone. But before you start buying those trees you have a few decisions to make and a bit of analysis to do. 1. Orientation – you need to understand the basics of winter sun and summer sun, how much westerly sun you welcome and how much you need to shelter from it; where your prevailing winds blow from and whether this changes with the season also. So, once you've worked out where you want the sun to penetrate and at what time of the year, how to allow for wind, frost, whatever... you need to 2. Decide if you want a predominantly native garden, a range of deciduous trees or a completely eclectic selection (like the best 'English' gardens – which are planted out with plants from all over the world – Indian subcontinent, Asia, Africa, The Americas etc. Even some from Australia!). 3. Now the tricky bit – what do you love, i.e. which trees and plants make your heart really sing – and hopefully for more than two or three weeks of the year? Once you have that list which of those are likely to be happy in your climate, in your soil and with the amount of gardening attention (watering, feeding, pruning etc) that you're likely to enjoy lavishing on them. Your long list will by now be a much shorter (and more manageable list) but trees are what make a house look bedded in and part of a landscape rather than just sitting out in the open in a way that is both self-conscious and a bit awkward. Although, again I guess you could embrace the suburban awkwardness and go all Howard Arkley in which case keep it all small and suburban... But it is your garden and your house – make it look like what you want your house and garden to look and feel like! Good luck!