Balcony Makeover: Phase I

Well, it's been a long, rainy time in coming, but I'm finally about done with the first phase of my mini balcony makeover. I pretty much used what I had on hand, rehabbed my old sling chair, made some pillows with some remnant fabric and an old shower curtain I had laying around, spray painted a few small tables, and tossed down some rugs. My color palette is navy blue, green, and coral with a little orange by way of the pillow fabric and terra cotta flower pots (and a certain orange boy-kitty).

It is a small space and gets direct sun all day, so I mostly use it early in the morning or later in the day. The cats like to hang out and sniff the air and look down on the dogs going for walks around the block and I sit out there to either read or eat breakfast or dinner or enjoy a beer.

One side has two (totally cheap-o) plastic chairs - they were "temporary" chairs I bought last year until I can find something I really love - I think they were less than $5/each. The color works and they're low maintenance but I'm certainly not trying to present them as anything great. I made two pillows with a remnant of Richloom's Little Ash Birds in navy blue on the front and a blue and white striped backing made from a thrifted canvas shower curtain. I'm pretty impressed with myself that I actually put zippers in the covers too! Between the chairs is a thrifted metal patio table I paid $3 for and spray painted navy blue. The flower pots were all ones I had on hand and are planted with coral petunias and the one on the floor has mint, catnip and cat grass in it for the you-know-whos so they don't try to eat the other plants.

And here is what it looked like before:

The other side of the balcony has my sling chair which I repaired by filling in weathered areas with wood filler and painted white. The old cover was shot so I made a new one with the blue and white striped shower curtain and the stripes running horizontally. When I laid it on to figure out the length I liked the way it looked with the extra fabric hanging down, so I just left it. I only had a small bit of the bird fabric left, so I used it as the center panel and patched in some of the striped on the sides so it was wide enough, and it is backed with the stripes too.

The little side table was also a $10 thrift store find I spray painted blue - it looks like bamboo, but was not one of the nice brass ones - it had some sort of antiqued looking silver finish that I didn't feel too bad painting over. The top is mirrored, but since it is outside and I didn't want to accidentally blind myself, a kitty, or random passing pilots, I put some frosted shelf liner on it. It needs spray adhesive or something on the back because it gets moisture underneath but otherwise it's not a bad solution.

And here is the before on this side:

The etage in the background is one I used to have inside and was over, it fits well in the space and seems to be holding up well in the weather. The wall pocket was another thrift find I painted coral and stuck some white petunias in. For rugs, I used two green rugs I got on clearance at Target last year and just randomly layered them (you can see where I shifted them around a but and the color has faded a bit unevenly, but I think it will even out again in the sun).

I still need to finish wrapping the old plastic crates in twine and work on a canopy of some sort. I'll get there. Eventually.