One Room Challenge - Balcony Reveal cost ONLY USD 120

Wow I cannot believe I finished this room. If the ORC hadn’t extended the deadline by a week I would be where I started. I didn’t have a clear vision for the balcony and most outdoor furniture was sold out due to COVID. I had to use a lot of what I had - so I adopted the motto of “want it? MAKE IT”. And my husband and I dived deep into DIY. Untrue. My husband dived into DIY, I was watching from the sidelines.

I knew I wanted a seating area for the space and was inspired by the photo below from Pinterest.

Can you believe wood was sold-out at Ace Hardware store??! I was passing by IKEA and I saw wood pellets being put in a truck - naturally - I hit the BREAKS. “Sir can I please have some of these“. Security guard looks surprised “yes but you must take them now”. Noooo my car doesnt fit! The search for wood continues. 4 days before the ORC deadline, my husband finds leftover wood at a construction site and he whips up the seat structure in a couple of hours! Don’t ask me how, I’ll see if he can write a tutorial. I need seat padding and cushions hmmmm. My sister and I go to Souq Waqif and after a 4 hours search we find an upholstery place (Al Khaja, Souq Najadi) 20 minutes away from the souq who can make the seating cushions. He had a gazzillion catalogues and you can choose any fabric you like. We chose an ivory linen-like fabric. My sister being a designer asked him to do the outlines in a darker colour and oh my they look so good! A 2 meter seat pad, 3 pillows and 2 leaning pads cost 450 riyals (USD 120) and were ready in 2 days.

Then I just used what I had in the house to style the place. I took the rug from the laundry room. Took a bunch of plant pots from our front door into the balcony. Mixed and matched a few cushions from around the house. Hung a photo of my grandma from when she was in her twenties. She’s gorgeous! She’s the reason I love gardening so there no place more fitting. hung a few planters onto the seat structure. Hung an old mirror to the wall aaaaand finally used a curtain as the canopy - does it show? Oh and burrowed the gorgeous table from our friend. I had my eyes on it since he bought it a few months ago. Maybe I’ll forget to return it.

And if you don't remember how the balcony looked like - here's a photo below. The raised garden beds are still there - the additions are beyond the beds. Of course I still have to sand down and stain the seat structure but that's for another day!

And there you have folks - a room makeover done in less than a week, costing only USD 120 and using a lot of stuff I already had. Happy day!