Balcony Reveal!

We finally have a reveal! Our big priorities as of late have been our outdoor spaces. We lucked out the past few weeks with gorgeous, 80 degree days, but *of course* this weekend is......gross. We won't let some Fall weather get us out of our summer groove, though! 

6 months ago our balcony looked like this....

We added some beautiful solar lights from Amazon, and I zip-tied a reed fence from Home Depot to the railing. These additions ran us only about $30 total. We tried to focus on inexpensive, heavy hitting updates. 

After searching and searching for an affordable outdoor rug, I settled on an outdoor mat - again, from Amazon. After only 2 days and about $35 we were able to add this colorful addition to our little slice of paradise. 

We knew we wanted some plants outside, so Amazon again was our go to for rail planters that we filled with beautiful hostas from Home Depot. They will grow much bigger, and will provide some dense foliage for us to cuddle up to as we sip coffee in the morning. 

Thanks to amazing friends, we had an IKEA giftcard that came in handy to get a $50 patio set. Can you believe that?! Two chairs AND a table. IKEA is the BEST!! We also grabbed a few small decorative items to pull the whole space together - including the cutest little bromeliad! 

After all was said and done, we are pleased to reveal that our balcony now looks like this: 

It's so cozy and bright and provides JUST the right amount of privacy. Arthur was concerned about feeling claustrophobic, but we realized that the reed fence is mostly a visual barrier. Sound and air still flow through with ease, which gives you all the benefit of being closed in without actually being barricaded. It is wonderful! 

That's all for now, but we are hoping to show off some BIG updates on the deck later in the weekend. That is, if we can get off the couch amidst this rainy, drizzly, soggy, cold weather. 

Happy Friday! 

IKEA PAX Master closet

The Master closet was the first project we did when we moved in. We opted to leave out the typical wire shelves that come standard. Aesthetically they are ugly and functionally they can be frustrating to maximize capacity because the brackets interfere with hanging. 

We went to Ikea and worked at their PAX workstation. Our closet is not very big - only about 5x7- so our goal was to provide as much hanging space as physically possible. 

IKEA PAX is AMAZING. Everything can be customized, from the different size shells to the possibility for adding glass or solid sliding doors to adding in jewelry pull outs, specialty pant hanging slots, and/or shoe racks. It was overwhelming, but in a way that gives you a lot of space for creativity and possibility. 

On my side we did two racks of hanging and 2 small drawers, plus another shell with two racks of hanging and one large drawer. Arthur's side has one drawer in the middle of the larger shell and one in the bottom on his smaller shell. 

For looks (and function) we added an oversized mirror (also IKEA) and a small foot stool. 

We then changed out the ugly standard light: 

and added this funky beauty, for only about $30

Here is the complete finished product, from an empty room, to a customized walk-in, all thanks to IKEA!