Small Balcony Ideas

I have a really small balcony (1m x 4m) which faces north and it’s lovely to sit with a cup of coffee, read the paper or munch on a piece of toast in the morning sunshine – if only I could fit! No matter how many different ways I have tried to organise that balcony, it has been a constant decorating challenge. Small tables and chairs always over-crowd the space making it impractical to move around and walk down to the yard - until I discovered the Hanging Balcony Table.

It looked pretty ridiculous online, but for $59.95 it was worth giving it a try.When it arrived, it was a little larger than I thought and solved the problem perfectly. Coupled with a bench seat from IKEA and these cute little pink and scarlet outdoor cushions, I have the perfect place to sit in the mornings to watch the birds and enjoy the sunshine.

Being a rented apartment I am sort of limited to what I can do, but I’m not 100% happy with it yet. While I have the furniture in position, the next step is to add some plants which I will also hang from the balcony and perhaps some wood deck tiles like these (about $15 - $25 per tile) – to make it a little more modern;

Here are a few other small balcony ideas I have uncovered while researching my own little project… Urban Balcony has some great furniture ideas including these ones for small spaces:

Burkes Backyard featured a small balcony makeover one episode including converting aluminium toolboxes into bench seats that also double as storage. I’m not too keen on the look personally, but I was originally thinking of having a piece of furniture custom made to fit in this space which could act as a kind of small daybed and storage box at the same time. They also featured another balcony makeover which looks much better including custom designs furniture and wooden deck tiles.

Check out the 10 Inspiring Small Space Balcony Gardens article on Apartment Therapy:

Doityourself website has a good article on how to dress up a small balcony and turn it into a lovely garden.

As does eHow with some nice ideas including lanterns – I hadn’t thought of that, but I think it would look good with a few candles on my balcony too.

Lots of small balcony ideas on this US website thefind.com.

And of course, IKEA has some good ides with stools and benches (where I purchased my Norden bench) but I didn’t want stackable furniture for myself as I think it clutters up a small space and also is a bit of a hassle.

And now for something just a little bit different – what about the Bloomframe shown here on the likecool website – a window which opens to a balcony – created in the Netherlands by architects Hofman Dujardin now no longer just a prototype…