Upper Balcony Key Players!
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My upper balcony is kind of strange because the only way to get to it is through my bathroom. My house is over 100 years old and old houses do not always make perfect sense! (Oh but how charming they are and how I love old houses!) The deck itself has very nice and expensive composite boards. The railings had been in pretty rough shape when we bought the house and a few years ago, my ex put up some new ones. The new railings looked great and it gave this old balcony a bit of a fresh slate! I had mentioned wanting to put some outdoor seating out there and make it a fun and colourful balcony to hang out on. The only thing we ever got around to putting out there was a laundry rack. A laundry rack that never got any use because I never took my wet laundry up there from the basement laundry room. Every now and then I would peek out the door and see this sad little pathetic and ignored space in my house and feel a pang of guilt at this neglect. I would quietly tell myself that the upper balcony's time was coming!
Well the upper balcony's time has come! It has received a little makeover and I will share the transformation soon on the blog. Part of my challenge was to make this a very low cost makeover. I didn't want to spend a lot of money and this forced me to look around at things I already had at my house and figure out a way to utilize these items for this project. There were a few key pieces that ended up pulling this makeover together and this little cast of characters deserve their own little shout out!
The rusty old blue enamel basin: was gifted to me by my Aunt Anne Marie. She had this big old bowl in the garden at her Sauble Beach cottage and I happen to collect this pattern of blue enamelware. She brought it over to my house one day and said "Here...I know you can do something great with this!" It has sat out on my back deck for the past two years waiting for me to do something great with it.
A run down garden stool: from the clearance section at Target. I bought this a few years ago and was kind of annoyed when I saw that it had several broken and chipped pieces after a few winters outside. I even had it in my dump pile until recently. When I started planning this balcony makeover, my Mom actually went to the dump pile to bring it back up to the balcony and said we should use it to hold a plant. Thanks Mom!
The rickety wooden chair: that came with the house. A chair that I would never trust to allow anyone to sit on! This was in the basement of our house when we bought it and I just never had the heart to throw it away. I had thought of painting it a few times and never got around to it. It has housed some flower pots or Christmas urns in the past, but really has just been hanging around the house ignored.
The vintage wooden ladder stool: Also came with the house. Also has sat in our basement ignored and occasionally brought out to hang Christmas decor or urns outside. I never wanted to throw it away because I have always thought it was a cool piece and had visions of using it to display blankets in my living room but...you guessed it...I never got around to it.
A rescued and rusting bistro table: I vaguely recall making my ex pull over when I saw this eye sore of a table with a FREE sign in someone's driveway. He told me it was garbage and falling apart and I said "Let's rescue it!" We rescued it all right. It has sat on this balcony ever since.
A pair of wrought iron chairs: from a thrift shop in Belleville. I was visiting my friend Sam for the weekend and we went thrifting and junking! I fell in love with the shape of these chairs. They reminded me of chairs you would find in an old English garden. I wasn't in love with the upholstery and the actual chair pads were falling apart. But the bones were good and I was confident that I could make them over with a little Mexican oil cloth I also found that weekend. It's ok....we've got oil cloth! (Only Sam will think that is funny, but she will think it is hilariously funny!!) I wish I had snapped a before picture of these chairs before the makeover, but wow, they are truly showstoppers now.
Stay tuned for how this boring and neglected balcony got a stunning makeover using these rescued items. You really can do a lot with a small amount of cash, lots of colour and plants (and a few bottles of wine and a helpful Mama!)
Brooke
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Writing an "About Me" is not easy. How do I pick and choose the pieces of my life that molded me into the person I am or deem the milestones and memories as important enough to tell you about in this little "About Me"...Well, I often joke that I have Read more about me...
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