This balcony is the first thing you see when you walk up to our home! I started to want to update this area when we started to talk about selling our condo and moving. It’s not a place we hang out too often but we look out to it from our living room. Originally I was trying to hide the air conditioner unit and a couple of free plants later it started to look more like an oasis and less like an empty balcony. Here is what we started with:
That cactus was the first plant I got to make this area feel more like a home. It started out cute and little and ended up huge. We ended up giving it away to a friend who had a yard. It just ended up not being very kid friendly! I slowly started to layer things in and eventually it started feel like a little oasis out on the balcony.
I got that big white pot at a second hand store for $10 but it didn’t have a drainage hole so it just sat there until I figured out what to do with it. I learned kind of the hard way that it didn’t have a drainage hole when I put a plant my sister gave me as a house warming gift in it and it died. So, my husband drilled some holes in the bottom and I also put it on this metal stand. Then I picked up a plant from home depot that I water every other day and if I miss a water day it immediately starts to die so I have to stay on top of this plant.
I got the wooden garden boxes here. I think it’s a seasonal item that is only offered in the Spring/Summer time. I added the hairpin legs that I purchased here. I needed them to have some height to disguise the air conditioner unit. My parents neighbor was weeding one day and asked me if I wanted a bunch of her succulents that she was getting rid of. I got some potting soil and planted them in my garden boxes. They look great. I was told that they don’t need to be watered too often. Like once a week or once every two weeks. I have been including them in the “water every other day cycle” and they are thriving. I might cut down their watering a little because I don’t really want them to grow too much stem.
I went to Green Thumb near my parents house and got some more flowery plants for this garden box. The African Daisies I got already died. The guy who helped me told me to water them every other day but I don’t know what happened to these poor daisies. My parents gave me a flowering plant for the middle pot to replace the dead plant. The African Daisy is currently in the plant hospital at my parents house.
I can’t remember where I got these chairs from. I thought I got them off Amazon but I couldn’t find them on their in white. I found some similar Acapulco chairs (set of two) here and found some on similar sites as well. I love these chairs! Super comfortable and they look super inviting on the balcony!
Rugs + Mats are both from Target. I got the rug because Hue was out on the balcony a lot and I didn’t want to get his little feet dirty. I got the door mat (not seen) for when we first moved in. I think the mats kind of pull the balcony together and make everything feel cozy – like home.
I didn’t get all of this all at once. In fact it trickled in a little bit over a couple of years. I got the garden boxes but felt they needed height but took a while to realize how to build that height. For a while I had the garden boxes stacked on top of each other for height purposes. So basically it took a while for it all to come together. It’s not an area we hang out too much in so I didn’t really want to invest too much $$$ in this area but visually we look out onto it everyday so it was important for me to make it look appealing from the couch!
