The UK has a special relationship with gardening, that stretches back for generations – and with enforced restrictions in 2020 and 2021, gardening found a new generation of devotees as younger generations discovered the joys of planting, weeding and relaxing in a space of their own making.
However, not everyone in the UK has access to a garden – and for many, their inner-city flat balcony is the closest they can get to their own little slice of outdoors. But a balcony is nothing if not an opportunity, to create a unique and cosy outdoor space for you and whoever you choose to invite to it. Your balcony could become a cosy private garden space, with a little sprucing-up. Here are some simple ways you can do just that, and create the outdoor space of your dreams.
Choose Comfortable Seating
Your balcony should be useful as well as beautiful – and one key way in which you can achieve both is with furniture. Choosing an outdoor furniture set can utterly transform your balcony space, with a variety of options available depending on the space you have to play with. For smaller balconies, chic folding chairs and a bistro table can work well, while hanging chairs can leave floor space for other items. For a larger balcony, you may have room for an outdoor sofa to create a unique outdoor living space.
Photo by Samantha Gades on Unsplash
Make It Cosy With Lights
Light is a fantastic way to transform a space, allowing you to highlight areas or change their perceived shape entirely. Outdoor fairy lights can be used to dress your balcony with warm twinkling lights, to accentuate the balcony balustrade and also provide mood lighting for any entertaining you might be doing. Spot lamps or hanging lantern lights can provide a little more brightness, so you can read outdoors even as the sun is setting.
Add Some Greenery
With your balcony being an outdoor space, you can make the most of your climate to cultivate arresting outdoor plants and floral displays. Small trees and shrubs work well to create that secret-garden feel, adding privacy as well as a splash of verdant colour. For greenery that takes up a little less space, try hanging a flowerbox over your balcony; you’ll retain vital floor space, and have a beautiful installation to look on from inside as well as outside. Hanging plants are also a must, especially to frame your doorway to and from the balcony and create a sense of verticality to your balcony’s décor.
Use Textiles and Hangings
Giving a sense of life to your balcony doesn’t require living things, though; raw materials and handmade goods are ‘in’ at the moment, part and parcel of a new push toward sustainable living. As such, hard-wearing woven textiles can make an excellent, trendy addition to your balcony – whether employed as a rug or hung as a tapestry to give your balcony walls a little extra intrigue. Less hard-wearing materials could be attached to your balcony roof, if you have one, as a drape – to lower the ceiling and create a softer feel altogether. You could also add to your walls by hanging other decorations, in the form of metal sculptures or artworks.
Cover photo by Spacejoy on Unsplash
