D.I.Y. Dani: Beautiful Balcony

Well, eventually I'm going to get the hang of taking time to actually write posts.
I finished this project quite some time ago, but I've been spending quite a lot of time designing my next project (no spoilers yet) not to mention this post is a long one.
As an apartment dweller, there isn't a lot you can customize. One thing I was determined to enjoy was my balcony. I finally moved to an apartment with a screened in porch and a fireworks view!
Balcony's are pretty confined and boring and limited on design options, but after seeing the balcony in this post, I knew exactly what I wanted to do!

First things first-fixing the view. Talk about first world problems, when I sat in my chair, the railing was directly in my line of sight for the fireworks show. Now I already had this chair from Pier 1 Imports and I really didn't want to buy something new. It's a great buy; comfortable, long lasting-though I recommend covering the cushion to make it last longer. So I called my good friend Cameron over with his many power tools and bought him pizza in exchange for him building this:

Lovely little box isn't it?

Jaxon really enjoyed the build process-sawdust can't be good for the digestive system...

Later on, I took a little time to sand and stain the platform (I used some leftover stain from a previous project, I don't remember what it was)-not that it helped it fit in on the bland balcony any better. So far total project cost is $30 and a pizza. But wait…there's more!

Side table is actually a repurposed shower stool I had used in my previous apartment shower stall.

After looking for quite a while online and almost buying some from Ikea, I found the coolest outdoor tile pavers.

They're made from recycled rubber, slightly raised from the floor to allow water runoff and won't mildew (at least so far and it's humid down here). They come in different styles/prints too!

They do vary in size up to 1/4" difference per tile, but I didn't really notice it. You're supposed to use clips that are sold separately to hold them together, but honestly I didn't see a need for them. They were heavy enough to stay in place on their own. And the best part? I can take them with me wherever I go! I bought them through ebates.com with a 40% off Home Depot coupon and free site to store (Love Ebates!) But they are an investment nonetheless. To cover my balcony (7'x12') I would have had to buy quite a few tiles; however, I decided that I would rather not cut too many of these tiles to fit (or pay that much money) so I planned on only covering a perfect rectangle and doing something else with the random edges. This is where my silly giant box worked in my favor. It takes up quite a bit of square footage and hides the back corner.

In the end, I settled on covering a b shaped space with four square on one side and 4 long in front of the platform and 2 spares in case, so 22 total (Project total now: $150)

Jax took a long time to decide he was ok with these.

I only experienced two cons to the tiles:

1) The boxes are ridiculously heavy, I had to carry them upstairs one at a time.

2) They honestly smell pretty strongly of rubber for a few weeks and can be slick for a while.

I got them how I wanted them, but it just didn't look right as a perfect square edge all the way around, so I took advantage of the flagstone print and cut some of my border tiles.

This is when I learned con #3, these things are really hard to cut!! I used a combo of really good scissors and a hand saw (surprisingly, the scissors were better) and I finally got them cut, but if I were doing it again, I'd recommend a power saw of some kind.

I don't have pictures of just the two tiles cut, but I cut one tile down one whole side (2/3 for one tile and 1/3 for the other) and then I cut three flagstones out of the corner of the other. In the end I had one full tile and a tiny flagstone corner left over-I keep them just in case-might need them next time I move!

Now to fill in those pesky gaps left around the tile. I went to Lowe's this time (ebates coupon and site to store!) and picked up some Mexican Beach Pepples. I ordered 4 bags, but ended up going back and paying full price for one more because they looked like they were spread too thin. (Project cost: $190)

I bought two new ivy plants at Lowe's for my weird corners and some fake mondo grass plants (I struggle to keep mondo grass alive outside but I liked the look) at JoAnn's (Project cost: $220)