Outdoor Hygge Balcony Makeover: One Room Challenge (Week 3)
You’ve seen the before tour. You’ve seem my inspiration board, design plans, & digital renders. This week I’ll be sharing with you my shopping!
I do have a few items that I’m still deliberating on but didn’t wanna hold up the design while I work through my indecisiveness. Plus it’s not like they’ll make or break the final transformation.
The chairs we already had. To prep em for the makeover, I’ll just be cleaning the fabric for a fresh look.
They’re the Nolmyra chairs from IKEA & are super comfortable!
While I don’t think they’re meant to be an outdoor chair (nor did we purchase em for that) they’ve been perfect on the balcony. We bought them when we first moved to Washington, and in that apartment they were our living room chairs -- large, comfy, and affordable!
I considered staining the legs a darker tone, but the pseudo raw light wood has grown on us.
Also from IKEA is the Gladom Tray Table, that you may recognize from my IKEA spring haul; actually a few of the items from that haul will be used on the balcony.
Available in a few other colors, I chose the dark green for that additional layer of green tones in the space. My fav feature is the fact that it’s a tray table so it’s super functional. We can remove the tray to use on its on, but while on its base, the lip around the sides keep everything in place while outside lounging & relaxing.
While on the IKEA site, I did go ahead & double check -- this is an indoor only piece of furniture. I'm still using it on the balcony for 2 reasons though:
- we have a covered balcony, so while it is open, it's not completely exposed to the elements, especially with the table being closer to the living room than to the trees; and
- out where we leave we don't get extreme weather -- it's never too cold in the winter or too hot in the summer -- so I think the table will survive, especially for 15 bucks!
The faux grass rug is from Amazon and I cannot get enough of it.
Last year I purchased one and immediately began thinking maybe I should’ve gotten two instead. Nearly a year later, I finally got the second one to cover the entire balcony floor.
The rug is 6' x 4’ but available in other sizes. Two of these, covering a total of 12' x 4'. was perfect because the balcony is roughly 12' x 5' in size.
Aside from covering the less than attractive looking floor, it also makes it a bit easier for us to be out here -- for us and our daughter we don't have to worry about having to wear socks or shoes; instead we can really feel like we're in a backyard or park and just relax.
In my Week 2 post, I mentioned that I would be keeping the rug -- we purchased it from Target last year and I absolutely still love it.
But to connect the living room to the balcony a bit more, I decided to go ahead and get this runner from H&M Home that I'd had my eye on for quite some time.
The blush tone will compliment what’s going on inside but also lighten up & soften outside a bit.
This is exactly what I'd done in the living & dining rooms -- I swapped out the deep blue tone accents for blushes, and that immediately changed the vibe of the space. I wanted to continue this onto the balcony. The blue & white rug could come back out in the Fall, so no loss there!
Also from H&M Home are my new cushion covers.
They were part of my H&M Home Spring Essentials Haul and feature greenery motifs & the gold lettered phrase, “Simple is Beautiful”.
If you haven’t guessed it by now, I’m layering different elements of greenery, be it through actual plants or through complimentary decor, to really create this cozy outdoor Hygge oasis. The gold lettering ties nicely back to the pops of gold in the living & dining rooms, in the same way that the greenery is threaded through the spaces.
If you follow my Instagram stories, you saw my poll to help me choosing an additional set of covers for the large pillows on my living room sofa -- again threading from the outside in.
Both options are also from H&M Home -- DUH! -- and both feature a sort tropical/floral motif.
I loved both so I was legitimately torn & couldn't make a decision. Leaving it up to you guys to vote seemed like the best solution -- I couldn't go wrong either way!
The white & green cover would provide a soft, complimentary look, while the white & floral cover would add a pop of color & a lot more visual interest.
In the final reveal you guys will see which one won. Or you could head over to my Instagram and follow the poll, lol.
Another textile I was considering, and ultimately decided on, was a tablecloth for my husband’s rims in the corner.
As I mentioned in Week 2, till further notice their home is on the balcony -- 2 are in the actual storage closet, but all 4 couldn't fit 00 so why not make em part of the design?!
Covering them with a tablecloth suddenly turns this eyesore into a super functional 2nd side table where I will house some of the herbs we’re growing.
I plan on getting a tray to place in the new “table” for the smaller of the herb pots. Initially I was going to use the saucer I purchased, also from my IKEA spring haul -- it's a blush tone pot dish; but while the diameter of the grooves perfectly fits those pots at the base, the pots have a wider diameter at the top making it possible for only 2 to sit in the grooves.
So if not for the pots on the rims, then I’ll be using this saucer/dish, most likely, as one really long coaster for the tray table.
It works out either way because this dish will be the perfect pairing with the new runner! And I already have an acrylic tray in mind for the second table!
I knew I wanted to have some hanging pots on the balcony in some way, although I wasn't exactly sure how at first. This macrame hanging shelf was the perfect solution.
It can easily hold 2-3 of my herb pots but to be safe I’ll most likely put a faux plant on the shelf — there’s a lot of birds & squirrels around here and in my mind they’ll knock over my pots. Lol.
Using a heavy duty outdoor command hook, the shelf will hang on the short side of the balcony, facing the storage unit.
The macrame will play off the garland above the fireplace in the living, again with the goal of keep the spaces feeling connected at all times in subtle but intentional ways.
Also from Amazon, I purchased an assortment of self watering pots — 3 small, 3 medium, 3 large. An herb garden is totes feasible even without a large sprawling yard.
This works out perfectly because I also purchased an assortment pack of 10 herbs to be seeded. The 10th will go in a pot I previously owned from Lowe’s, and that's assuming I even plant it since it's not an herb we use anyway. If I do, however, I’ll most likely purchase a self watering orb from the same seller on Amazon.
In case you're wondering, "what's with all the self-watering" here it goes -- I don't trust myself to keep these herbs alive. While I may have every intention on doing so, days could easily go by where I don't water em. So rather that take that chance, I'll let the pots work for me.
So far we've potted & seeded basil, cilantro, and chive, and they have all successfully sprouted and seem to be well on their way. I don't know if that would be the case left up to me remembering to water em.
The 3 smaller pots came with potting soil — fiber soil — and that's what we used for the 3 aforementioned herbs. Since those three are doing great, I purchased some fiber disks individually for the other remaining pots.
Rounding out my pot collection are two deep blue pots that we purchased over a year ago at a local supermarket.
No Hygge inspired space -- indoor or outdoor -- is complete without the proper lighting plan. For me this is a a combination of new candle holder lanterns from H&M Home and globe string lights.
I'd had 2 sets of the string lights for about a year now but after haphazardly ""hanging" (please reading: taping to the side of the condo) 1 set last year, I didn't even bother putting up the 2nd set.
The string lights emit a nice white glow and have a solar powered panel, so no worrying about batteries or outlets; however, what I didn't give much thought to was the location of the panel. With the balcony being a cover space, I wasn't nearly as smart as I should've been in terms of where the panel should be for optimum power.
Lesson Learned.
I purchased clear command hooks, perfect for hanging string lights, to properly position the lights on the railing & top of the balcony. To add to the lighting, 1 flameless candle will be placed in the braided lantern, which has the most beautiful braided hyacinth exterior; and 2 flameless candles will go in the metal lantern with the perforated surround.
This combination will make for some really cozy evenings on the balcony with a glass of wine.
Prior to even considering additional throw pillow covers for the living room, I knew I had to incorporate greenery in the living room in a big way.
Enter the world's more amazing & most comfortable ottoman.
This tropical motif indoor/outdoor ottoman, as soon as I saw it, was a piece I knew I had to have in my home. The fact that the upholstery is UV tested and weather resistant was a happy bonus, because that meant I could also use it outside if we needed more seating or wanted a footrest.
SCORE!
The plan is to keep it in the living room, as an accent ottoman/footrest, but to be honest this girl could work in just about any room for a fun pop of greenery!
Lastly, to support our larger pots, including the one housing our faux fiddle leaf tree, I purchased 3 new plant stands in 3 different heights. Playing around with the heights in this way would be great for the different types of plants that would be on them & I love a subtle touch of juxtaposition.
Quick Shop The Design
This week is when I really get into the think of cleaning & prepping to wrap up the styling. While there's a thing here and there I think I want to get to really get the vision I'm going for (see the digital renderings), I know that I need to start putting things in place to then start editing as I go along.