Balcony Oasis

Master Balcony Decorating

I'm decorating the master balcony. My friend, Jill Florio, is helping me with the decor. We began by figuring out a theme for the balcony. I like to travel, but I'm not very fond of things that are modern. I prefer vintage items, but not things that are too heavy looking or stuffy. Even though I live in Miami, I don't to go with an Art Deco theme. I like to look at it, but don't want to live with it. One of my requirements for the balcony is whatever gets put out there needs to be easy to move back into the house. We get hurricanes from time to time and I want things I can move around myself. Jill helped me to decide on a British colonial Caribbean theme. This will compromise of bamboo furniture with will be light and easy to move. We also came up with the idea of buying canvas for a rug for the floor and possibly putting up a vintage map on the wall. Here is the shopping list we came up with... Steamer Trunk 2 Bamboo Chairs - $40.00 Small Side Table - $20.00 Canvas Rug - $70.36 Privacy Screen Vintage Map, Framed - $23.29 Vintage Fan, working Airguide (Thermometer, Hydrometer, Barometer) - $17.94 Fake Plants or real Cacti The goal is to buy as much as I can through thrift and second-hand stores, Craigslist, and eBay. This will help to keep costs down. The balcony is 46 inches wide and 16 feet long. A long thin balcony! Unfortunately, the balcony doesn't have a lot of appeal. The view is of other townhouse units and the mailboxes. Hopefully, when I do get some chairs out there I'll see mostly sky, clouds, and the tops of the trees. The ceiling height is roughly 6 1/2 to 7 feet high. So the space is going to be a bit tricky to work with. There is a sliding glass door on the left side of the balcony. It has hurricane shutters that when folded up stick out about four inches on each side. The floor is simply gray concrete. I was considering pressure washing it and painting the floor. I've decided to go with some outdoor rugs that can easily be swapped out when they fall apart. I may still pressure wash and paint the floor eventually. On the ceiling is a light. I may consider a ceiling fan eventually, but the ceiling is quite low.