I have always been a bit of a planner, particularly when it comes to mapping out living spaces.  As a child I would draw out floor plans and room layouts in my spare time…you know, for fun.  Totally normal childhood behavior, right?  Okay so maybe it isn’t the most common of hobbies for a kid to have, but it has served me well on many a move.

Following our most recent move last September I didn’t have an occasion to map out any spaces and I was starting to feel like I needed to get my fix.  It comes as no surprise that I went a bit overboard when planning out our balcony.  By overboard I mean that I sketched out a basic design months ago and then actually put mouse to graph paper and did a rough mock-up online at Home Styler.  The company’s online tools are incredibly straightforward to use and they have a huge selection of furniture you can choose from to add to your space.  I stayed pretty true to my original rough sketch and think the below little mock-up turned out pretty well!

When planning our small balcony I took three main things into consideration: the budget we wanted to work with; our lifestyle, meaning how we hoped to use our outdoor space; and the amount of light the balcony gets.

• Budget: We are not planning on staying in our current home past the end of next summer.  It therefore doesn’t make sense for us to invest a large sum of money into the space.
• Lifestyle: We have lofty dreams of sipping wine and dining on our balcony at twilight.  I envision a little perch for Lola to lounge on during the day.  I’d love to have some greenery in our life.  So many ideas for such a small space!
• Light: You’d think that we would get tons of sun because we are in LA, right?  That turns out to not quite be the case.  We discovered that due to the layout of our building we don’t actually get much, if any, direct sunlight during the day.  There go my dreams of growing rosemary and other sun-loving herbs!

So to recap, we are working with a small self-imposed budget, want the space to serve several purposes and can only put plants that can handle zero direct sunlight out there.  It turns out those are quite a lot of variables to work with, particularly when I envision the space looking something along the lines of the gorgeous small outdoor living inspiration I shared last Thursday.  In other words, I envision perfection!

If you need me at any point over the next few weekends you will be able to find me crisscrossing Los Angeles between IKEA, Home Depot and various nurseries.  Stay tuned for a progress report…