Any ideas with garden design

[Oxo01]

Firstly I apologise for my diagram and good old feet and inch measurments.

My garden is bare now except rotting decking, old slabs with narrow boarders around edges for plants.

My garden is like a sun trap most of the day.

We are overlooked from houses at the end of our garden.

Enclosed is a drawing ( if you can call it that )

Nor sure if it's size would be ok to have some curves rather than being square like.

Would like

1. metal/ steel pergola that has retractable roof by window/ door.

Replace decking with tiles.
(Currently have a garden sofa along the window area which is good.)

2 )Replace the slabs but really don't want gravel or wood chips.

3. Grass would be considered but not all over that area if I can think of something else, maybe a circle ?
   So I really unsure what to do.

4. A smallish shed at the back maybe in the middle with curved bits from each side for planting.
   Help please

Go for curves or interlocking circles. Straight lines will draw the eye down the garden towards the view you don't want, which is the houses opposite.

Another option would be to put the slabs on the diagonal, which would then give you zig-zag edges to the borders.

Incidentally, a border needs to be around 1m deep as a minimum if you can possibly manage it.

Which way does the garden face - ie in what direction are you facing when you stand looking out of your window down the garden?

Could you take up the slabs and then reconfigure them into a smaller circle with wider curved borders. Tallish fences with mirror panels on them - it will make the area look bigger and deceive the eye that the end of the border is curved. Climbers on the fence between the mirror panels. A round pergola in the middle of that with climbing plants and a table and chairs (even if just a little bistro set) for a shady and not overlooked place to sit. Two raised beds between the new slab area and the tile area with a gap in the middle. You can grow herbs in the raised bed for cocktails and BBQ.

One of the best things I did was search for specific garden ideas and designs on Pinterest. The suggestion emails it sends me for pics that might interest me have been honestly inspirational.

@Yamadori
I assume south, the sun starts from the left back end of garden.
Sun is in garden most of day, then ends near my window and along the left side boarder.

Thank you all so much for all the ideas, i need to digest them now.

Just another question
Can the slabs i have at the end of garden be crushed and used for the bits that go under a new patio by my window. Or is that different materials ?

You could replace the decking with tiles in a circular pattern. Then replace the slabs with a circular lawn. The interlocking circles will give you a figure-of-eight design, with curvy borders. You could make it even more interesting by having the circles slightly off-kilter (one to the right-ish, the other to the left-ish).
Plant some height (trees) at the 'waist' of the 8. This will obscure the view and make the garden more interesting. You could plant something towards the end to be a 'focal point'. Please don't make your focal point be a shed!

Apologies for even-more-amateur drawing than yours. Last time I spent ages on a design the OP never came back so I'm not doing that again!

Be careful about putting a pergola by the window because it would probably steal light from the room. Have it further away, maybe at the 'waist' or over by the right hand boundary.
Then it can be something to be seen from the window (another focal point) rather than something blocking the view.

@senua
Thank you so nice to see ideas on paper, and for you to do so, think yours is better than mine 😄
I said shed in middle as I thought about curved bedding each side could accommodate small tress but I know what you mean about it will be a focal point .
Idea of small circle of lawn was in my thinking,.
Re patio i think I have in my head a flat patio like where my decking is, so need to maybe think outside of my small brain box but hard to visulise things.
So good to see things drawn out.
Thank you and tonall that has given food for thought.

@senua
I thought about pergola affecting the light it will for sure, but thought if I had retractable roof open ( for sunny days) there would be some light still, and in winter it's dark anyway and patio area and bits will be covered.

how do you want to use the garden? sitting out in chairs on the patio? or sitting on the lawn? or growing veg? or something else?

I would place a really nice seat somewhere away from the house - a comfy bench or a pair of adirondack chairs - and then plan other aspects of the planting around that. having a seat gives you a focus and a place to enjoy the garden from.

@parietal thank you.
Yes patio seating area just for sitting out relaxing in the bits of sun we get.

I do grow tomatoes in tubs.
I used to grow carrots, onions, garlic. peppers, potatoes, herbs in pots but don't want to do that as much, unless in a small raised bed section.
Have a BBQ but rarely use it.
Dont want to sit on grass myself, Small grass area to break up patio and softer area for children when they visit.