Tuesday, June 17, 2008

The Tiny But Great Outdoor

Notice that outdoor is singular, thats because the only outdoor space we have is a small balcony. For me this was a really tough area to decorate because its only 5 X 12. At the same time, for a long time we used this space for storage. This was until I came across a posting some posts online, regarding decorating small balconies. I immediately knew I could do something with this space and began to study any pottery barn, crate and barrel, ikea or Bed Bath and Beyond ad that came to our place.

After I finished clearing out the balcony, I only had my grill and a container for our recyclables. So my first step was an attempt to bring a bit of color to the boring brown balcony, I bought a hanging planter box with some flowers. Wow, the flowers made a difference right away.

My second step was to buy some type of patio furniture, so to conserve space I bought a bistro set that I picked up for under $75 at Bed Bath and Beyond. Cool, now I can drink my coffee and admire my flowers on the weekend. After I got the bistro set, I ran into a creative block, and didn't touch the balcony for about 4 months. My flowers died and didn't even replace them.

Anyway's a few weeks ago I got a creative breakthrough, and decided to head to Ikea. I came across these really cool lanterns, so I decided to use an old gift card that my wife had given me a year ago. I still had about $30 on the card so I bought 2 of the lanterns, a smaller table lantern, and some candles. When I got home, I realized that I would need hooks to hang lanterns, so I went over to Home Depot. While there, I decided to pick up some new flowers for my planter. Later that weekend I decided to install the hooks to hang the lanterns, and plant the flowers. Boom, the lanterns looked great and the balcony began to have a little bit of character. My wife and I had dinner (with candlelight) out there a couple of times, and afterwards I realized that only one thing was missing an outdoor rug. I picked one up at Target a few days later. Check out the final result.


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