Being stuck in the flat all the time due to lockdown has made me appreciate my space more, and want to improve it so we can enjoy being in the flat. This includes our balcony.

Its only a little balcony but over the last few weeks I have learnt to appreciate it as its our only outdoor space. Over the last couple of years we haven’t used it much as a sitting space. We have a little ‘bistro’ style table and chairs on it and we tend to eat dinner out there in the summer but the chairs are not very comfortable to sit on for a long period of time so we found that just sitting and relaxing on the balcony was not something we really did.

Another reason was we were using it as our little allotment. A little urban garden in the big smoke. As the plants ended up taking up so much space we did not have anywhere to sit. This year we decided not to grow anything as we were supposed to be away for pretty much all of May for our wedding and honeymoon. Alas that has not happened.

With all this free space and wanting to use the balcony we decided to give it an upgrade, find some comfy seating and use the space as it should be and not waste it as I know so many people during lockdown would kill for some out door space.

It has taken a while to find chairs that would fit and didn’t cost the earth. In the end it all came back to IKEA. I spent a while looking for websites that catered for small balcony spaces but you just end up with more ‘bistro’ set style seating which we had. What we wanted was a bench style seat and a comfy seats and ideally it all fit on the tiny balcony so we could get a couple of plants on there.

So the final decision was all with IKEA which surprised me but they had what we wanted, it would fit and it was not going to cost a ridiculous amount. We went with the ÄPPLARÖ bench which came with a backing board that can have a shelf or hang things from. We got it separately as two items as we couldn’t get it delivered as one. We also got the big white chair, a HÖGSTEN, which is lovely and deep and I have been able to sit in it to read in the sunshine, bliss.

The cushions we got in Wilko’s last summer I think, I love a topical pattern, and the parrot lights were a great investment piece from Tiger –  completely essential I think you will agree.

Once we are able to get out a bit more freely we want to go and get a couple of plants to put on the balcony, bring it to life a bit, but as it stands at the moment we are pretty pleased with the whole thing. The balcony is much more inviting, colourful and multipurpose. We can sit on the bench ( which is also storage space for plant pots and gardening tools), and use the table –  the glare isn’t terrible so you can use a laptop out there. We can still eat dinner out there on the table and there is the big chair for relaxing. The big chair can also come inside when we have guests as that is something we sometimes struggle with.

A few small adjustments has made the balcony feel more like our space and part of the flat rather than a separate space we do not really use. Small adjustments can be made without spending a fortune and this is a great feeling. The balcony is now part of the flat, a place we can use to relax.