Thank you everyone for all the suggestions! We are going to add hydrangeas to the side of the house, might make sense to just extend those out and lose a bit of the privacy, or otherwise accept we'll need to prune whatever else we put there (or just keep the aborvitae). I'll look into the Purple Pillar Rose of Sharon and the April Dream camellia.

It might not be enough sun but Purple Pillar Rose of Sharon ia tall and narrow. Not fragrant but pretty.

I think this will be a matter of pruning more than plant selection. Most shrubs grow pretty wide unless they’re dwarf varieties, in which case they aren’t tall, either.

Hydrangeas

Many flowering shrubs come in dwarf form, hydrangeas, spirea, potentilla, abelia, viburnum, etc.

Just prune the lilac.

Thanks!

Some camellia varieties are taller than wide. Look up April Dream?

I have one part of my yard that gets morning sun for about 4-6 hours. I would like to plant something where the previous owners planted an emerald aborvitae (to give you a sense of the space). Because it's one of the few areas that gets sun, I would love to find something with fragrant blooms, but even something with pretty flowers would work. I was initially thinking the Miss Kim Lilac, but I think it's going to get much too wide. That seems true of most shrubs. I suspect there isn't a great solution for this, but thought I'd ask here.