Redecorate Your Outdoor Living Space
When decorating your home, we sometimes neglect or overlook the outside living area of a balcony or patio area. This can easily become your favorite part of your home without breaking your pocketbook. Its all about making smart purchases that match your personality and style. There is no right or wrong style or colors to use just right spacing and sizing that doesn’t overcrowd your small space. Let’s review some small balcony ideas together.
Don’t we all want to live and feel a luxurious lifestyle regardless of our budget or space! One question I’ve heard a lot of is, “How do I enjoy my small outside living space on a budget?”. I too have lived and experienced this same dilemma. Although I love my quaint space, I want to feel as though I am using my smallest space to it’s fullest potential. I hope to share with you some small balcony ideas to help you. We all want to enjoy every aspect of our home both inside and out. Whether it’s having your breakfast and tea while watching the sunrise or enjoying the evening watching the holiday fireworks while having a martini outside on the balcony.
I feel the best way to describe how to do this is to maximize the use of your space without overcrowding it with bulky over-sized furniture and accessories. Now, you do need to accessorize. Just going bare with one or two key features can have the adverse effect and make your space look neglected or under designed. Compact yet full size furniture sets and accessories is the key. I will share with you some small balcony furniture ideas and where to get them. Patio furniture can be found in so many different places and depending on where you live options may vary greatly. My favorite source of shopping is online. I’m sure you can agree with me that convenient to your door delivery can’t be beat. Especially if free shipping or no special freight fees are charged. Yes I love a great deal, however I can’t stress enough that buying the cheapest outdoor furniture may not save you much in the long run. Especially when you may find yourself replacing rusted or color fading furniture sooner than later.
Since I like to give as much detail as possible, the measurements that I am working with is 6ft 3″ wide by 14ft x 3″ in length enclosed with stucco walls. I also have a huge bay window that makes me feel like the outside space is part of my inside living space when the doors and curtains are all the way open. Your balcony may have open metal bars that may be less private from below. If you prefer you can even modify that by tying on some flexible lattice for privacy. If you live in a more modern building with glass walls for the balcony this can just add to your design choices. Since I live in a pet family household, I must make room for our furry family to enjoy the space as well. Color is also important, just make sure it is not overbearing unless that is your loving personality.
I have included first a before picture of the bare balcony space. On the surface, it may not appear to have much potential. As a note be sure to clean your outdoor flooring as much as possible. I Power Washed my balcony before adding new furniture and I will continue to do so as regular maintenance. Since I don’t have a water source on my balcony I use this Portable Power Cleaner with a bucket of water to clean it. I hate to admit that I struggled for a long time to clean my balcony until I found this handy tool. Oh, there are some great inventors out there. Why didn’t I think of it first?
Simplicity goes a long way with outdoor space. You don’t need a lot or anything too complicated. I love the option of a simple bar table and bar-stools. For the size of my balcony I went with two stools but could easily add a third or fourth stool for extra seating. Start with the minimum you need from day to day. You can always buy more especially since stools are sold as a single item. I purchased my bar-stools and table from Lowe’s for such an economic price, however, you can choose a higher quality if you choose. I went with this option after searching in many different price ranges I felt I did not see the dramatic difference in quality for what I would use it for. I also purchased my outdoor/indoor rug from Lowe’s as well. The great thing about these outdoor rugs is they are weatherproof and do not fade from my experience. You can simply spray them down or rinse them off with water.
You can add some extra color with plants or flower pots. I chose to go with hanging plants and flowers from Home Depot. I always seem to find a great selection of plants from Home Depot and they often have sales that help out with my budget. In the picture below I also added a tall white planter box.
What brings me even more joy is that my baby dog seems to love the new outdoor living area and her new bed. I have been through many outdoor dog beds including a covered canopy bed that lasted quite some time. I’ll include the link here for what my dog baby used to enjoy. The new wicker mansion, I like to call it, is extremely heavy and of great quality. You do have to screw the sides and pieces together. I put it together by myself and it wasn’t too hard with only one set of hands. It has been rained on and experienced the cold weather and still looks great. If this changes I will let you know. One thing to mention, before it rains be sure to take out the bed cushion and bring it inside so it’s not soaked and mildewed.
After Photos:
The white flower pot stand is great for planting a few flowers with an easy clean look on a small balcony. You can find the white tall planter box here.
