We’re all at home a lot more right now, and that means our outdoor spaces are more important than ever. Our team each have very different outdoor spaces, but none sadder and more in need of some attention than our Coordinator of Creative Experiences’ (hi!) condo balcony. After moving in during the late fall, I didn’t have the chance to do much with the patio other than throw old patio furniture out there for storage over the winter. It has sat ever since, in need of some finishing touches and love. We were sure that lots of other people were looking for ways to spice up their own outdoor spaces being home so much, so we decided to film the makeover.
Getting Started
We live for bargains and doing this makeover on a budget was a big part of the goal for us so we decided to repurpose as much as possible. We had a super old small, balcony sized bistro table from IKEA (sadly they don’t make it anymore, but this is pretty close) that was a little rusty and needed some love. So after scrubbing it down to no avail, we decided to sand and paint it, which did not make it into the video for the specific and embarrassing reason that I thought the camera was turned on the whole time but after finishing the last coat it became clear that was not the case. The finished product turned out amazing – we loved the way the Rust-Oleum® Universal® Matte Paint & Prime spray worked for us and Robin’s Egg Blue was too cute to pass up. We sprayed 2 coats to cover the whole table and we were ready to move on to washing our chairs down since they had gotten quite dusty over the Winter. With the prep done, it was time to place and decorate!
Decorating the Space
The finishing touches are the most fun part amirite?! We broke down the decor into 5 categories:
- Furniture – this is all the big stuff
- Soft Touches – think soft textiles like rugs and throw pillows
- Plants/Greenery – Anything GREEN!
- Lighting – Candles, String Lights, Patio Lanterns…
- Pretty Pieces – All the rest of the pretty decor stuff!
For our makeover we hit up JYSK for some affordable options (also COVID-19 closures were seriously impacting our shopping) and came up with this list:
We started by placing the furniture, which was no easy task for this small balcony. In an ideal world we would love to add an outdoor rug and some more plants but with COVID-19 restrictions we couldn’t find the right items to fit the space (if we make some changes we will update on socials). Then we added our decor, some plants and strung up twinkle lights on the railing for ultimate cosy vibes even after dark.
#PatioGoals
Since we know this makeover was so affordable and simple, we wanted to put our heads together to dream up our ultimate patio, not limited by COVID closures/lack of availability but still keeping a reasonable budget in mind. Most of these items are from IKEA (who happens to have 20% off outdoor furniture right now 😍) so they are still budget friendly!
Click on the image to head over to Pinterest to see our shopping list of all these items!
Watch the video below & tell us what you are doing to get your outdoor spaces into shape this summer 