Micro-Makeover: The Balcony – Final touches

With this beautiful weather in Berlin at the moment, I am enjoying my little city beach (the big picture here and the details here) more than ever. I love it morning, midday, afternoon, evening and night. And although I try to relax and enjoy the sun and the view, I often find myself doing little things here and there. But these are my final touches, I promise.

Since I try to use my balcony more like an extra room and not just as a little attachment to the apartment, I also thought I needed some art for the walls of my little ‘sunroom’

First I bought picture frames in green and turquoise from IKEA (4 for EUR 5) to stay within my ‘colour scheme’. They come with a plastic cover for the picture instead of a glass cover, which is perfect because then they cannot break even if a gust of wind blows them off the wall.

Then I looked for pictures which would fit within the beach topic but weren’t too colourful. If you have colourful frames like that, I prefer to have pastel or monochrome pictures. Anyway, the minute I saw these X-ray pictures of different shells my decision was made. I enlarged them to exactly fit the frames, printed them on cardboard, then cut out and framed them.

And voila, my city beach balcony sunroom is also a gallery ;-). I am off to the vernissage with an ice coffee now.

Hope you all enjoy your Saturday!

Micro Makeover – One more for the balcony

When I started the micro makeover of my balcony I talked about creating a beach balcony, a city beach even). It turned into my little oasis full of summery details, but a beach? Where is the water you might say? Where is the sand?

Well, here it is...

... a mini beach with the finest and whites sand you can think of. And it is so much cheaper than a flight to the Whitsundays ;-) Actually in total it was just EUR 15!

White plastic flowerboxes from Domaene (EUR 1.99 each)
Sand box sand from Bauhaus (EUR 1.80) – guaranteed without cat poo, cigarette butts or cullet
Bicycle expander from kik (4 for EUR 1) – to prevent the boxes from being overturned at once by your little one or a strong wind

Beach mat from kik (EUR 2.99) – to make ‘the beach’ a bit nicer to sit on and to crawl on

Other news from my city beach: the herbs are growing...

... and the courtyard has put on its green dress.

Happy Saturday!

Micro-Makeover: Balcony – The Details

After showing you the big picture of my new balcony yesterday, I want to ‘zoom in‘ on some details today. In case you want to ‘steal’ an idea or two. Or in case you are as short-sighted as I am ;-)

1 Bought: Rattan chairs from IKEA (EUR 20 each)

2 Me-Made: Cushion covers (made of this wonderful green-turquoise fabric, back and seat cushions used as pattern, no fastener used just overlapping pieces of fabric on the bottom)

3 Me-Made: Covers for folding chairs (again made of the ‘signature’ fabric, single layer of fabric with a hem on both sides and a Velcro fasting on the bottom, so that it can be taken off for washing)
4 Bought: Turquoise-white plastic rug from house doctor (reduced to EUR 20)

5 Bought: Turquoise solar-powered paper lantern string from IKEA (EUR 15)
6 Bought: Turquoise net canopy from Domaene (EUR 8.99) - to prevent my little one from throwing her toys down to the court yard 6 stories below, Wiebke ;-)
7 Bought: Herb plants (EUR 1 each) - and there are more herbs sowed in the other flower boxes, so unfortunately we don't have space for turquoise flowers, Christiane ;-)

8 Bought: Green-white-turquoise planting bag from IKEA (EUR 0.50)

Total amount spent: EUR 87.46

So right within the budget of EUR 100, which I have set myself as limit for a micro-makeover ;-) For me this makeover is worth every cent, however, because now I feel like having a summer cabin right next to my living room ;-)

There are still some projects left which I still haven’t managed to do, but I will tell you about them once they are finished and ready to be shown. Now I am off to my little summer retreat for a cool beer!

Hope you had a nice, productive or lazy, spring or autumn (if you live down under or somewhere else on the southern hemisphere) weekend!!!

Micro-Makeover: Balcony – The Big Picture

Tata... today I am finally able to show you how my balcony looks after my micro-makeover. Just a short reminder – this is how it looked before...

... and now it looks like this:

Much better, isn’t it? I love it so much now that want to spend all my time outside, reading a book during the day, chatting and drinking a beer with my husband in the evening and doing a BBQ with friends on the weekend.

I am really surprised how much I even like the green balustrade now. In the beginning I had no idea what to do with it. Green is not my colour – neither in fashion nor in decoration. Since we live in a rented apartment with lots of similar balconies, however, painting the balustrade was not an option. I thought of covering it, but I also didn’t want to block the view. And then the whole dilemma was solved when I looked through my fabric stash and found this fabric which I have bought at IKEA years ago:

It was the solution to all my problems because it combines green and one of my favourite colours turquoise in such a beautiful way. So green-turquoise the colour scheme would be and the rest miraculously fell into place. I have so many turquoise pieces for decoration, which I all bought while we lived in Australia. So having these on my balcony doesn’t just look nice, for me they will also remind me of my ‘second hometown’ Melbourne all the time. They really add to my mid-city Berlin balcony a splash of Aussie lifestyle and interior design. Because since the climate is so pleasant in Australia, people put much more thought and effort in the planning, building, furnishing and decoration of their ‘outdoor spaces’ (auf Deutsch: Garten, Balkon, Terrasse, Loggia etc.). They make them stylish and most of all liveable. Well, most of them anyway. Of course doggy backyards full of rubbish exist as well ;-)

So that was the big picture of my new balcony. More on the details tomorrow.

Enjoy your evening!

Micro-Makeover: Balcony Teaser

You might have guessed already that my promise yesterday  was a bit ambitious. Attempting to turn this balcony

into something beautiful – a city beach even – takes longer than a weekend. Especially if you have a very clingy 10-months-old around you all day. Oh well, I keep on going and I definitely keep you updated. Here is a first teaser:

Yes, there will be lots of this beautiful turquoise colour. A bit Cafe del Mar. A bit Pacific Ocean. A bit Glam. A bit Folk.

Enjoy your Sunday!

Micro-Makeover: Balcony Before

I love before -&-after-stories. No matter whether it is a person who gets a makeover (hair, make-up, fashion), a piece of furniture, a room or a whole apartment. I don’t care whether it is my style or my budget, I am just fascinated by the change that can be achieved in a relatively short amount of time, with relatively little effort. The only problem is, often these magic transformations go hand in hand with a huge budget (which I don’t have). Therefore I invented the Micro-Makeover. This is a teeny-weeny makeover. One with a tiny budget, but with lots of creative energy. I hope it inspires you to get started and change something for the better.

Spring is not only around the corner. It is here. For good. And now I really have to turn my attention to my little balcony. It has been neglected so far, since we moved into our apartment when it was already too cold to sit outside. So we focussed our attention on the interior and just ignored that there was ‘something out there’. Now, however, the sun is shining more days than not. The temperature is rising and I really feel like taking my morning coffee outside. Except that it looks like this at the moment:

Oh well, these are the nasty before shots. And at least the view is nice. Lots of sky. Lots of air. Lots of light. Only few ugly buildings. But the balcony itself – you see, lots to do. Thus I decided to spend this weekend turning it into a city beach balcony. A place on which you actually love to spend time.

I did some shopping today and I have some great ideas, but so far there is nothing I can show you. So, please be patient. I hope to present the amazing after shots tomorrow evening. But now I have to quit and start sewing the cushion covers.

Enjoy your Saturday night!