Apartment Balcony Makeover Before and After

This week's post is going to be something a little different. Instead of a DIY, we're going to give a tour of our outdoor balcony!  It's exciting for us (and hopefully for you) because it's the last little space of our apartment that needed some attention. As you will  see in the before pictures it was basically just a disorganized storage pit. Every time I opened the door to check the weather, or entertain the idea of eating a meal at our little patio table, I would just feel my brain spin around in circles and hear an overwhelming voice in my head tell me, "Walk away, Laina....walk away." So, as summer approached we decided that this would be the year that we would finally have a dreamy outdoor space.

Before we went shopping we established some goals for the balcony: 

1) Have a nice place to eat and relax 

2) have room for Iris to play with her beach playset (check out our DIY beach playset here)

3) Make room for storage 

Then we decide on a theme. We don't stick strictly to a theme, it's more of a backdrop, and then we add any little thing that we want, like gnomes and disney characters...okay, so more like I add everything that I want. We decided to go with a tiki theme. Next was a  productive day of shopping, I bought leis and a hula skirt from the party supply section of hobby lobby (but if you don't like Hobby Lobby you can gee this stuff at any party supply store or website) we collected some clearance glass containers, picked up some super cute outdoor lights from target (my happy place), and made use of leftover play sand and the insane amount of sea shells that Zac and Iris brought back from our Florida trip last winter. 

So I hope you enjoy this little tour of our tiny outdoor oasis. Let's start with the before:

Before...

See what I mean? Doesn't your brain just want to punch itself in the face right now?

  After.... 

We used a $3 party hula skirt as a backdrop for our  table and chairs

These cute disney pot hangers were sent to me by my sweet friend, Misti 

Every room in our home has some type of cute creature hanging around. So the balcony was no exception.

There was no hiding the bikes, so we just gave them some colorful leis.

My mom spotted this clever idea on pinterest and shared it with me. You take a $2 solar yard light and stick it in an outdoor tiki torch for flame-free lighting. Perfect for renters like us! We found a cute glass container on clearance and secured it  with sandbox sand and Florida seashells.

 at Night.....

As you can see, it looks SO much better. And we love having a place to relax and feel the breeze and listen to our wind chimes. Do you have any summer home decor projects? We would love to hear about them!

See you soon!