A NEUTRAL PATIO DESIGN FOR SUMMER

Hi, friends – it’s been a while! Between work and planning for my upcoming wedding, things have been a little crazy lately. This week feels like the first time in months that I’ve had time to breathe, so of course it felt like a good time to finally get back to blogging.

Here in Northern Virginia, we’ve been lucky enough to have pretty consistent summer weather since April. But between a crazy work schedule and lots of rain, I feel like it took me longer than usual to get into summer mode. Yesterday was such a gorgeous day and it really had me itching to get our outdoor space ready for the summer ahead. I’ve been brainstorming ideas for our condo balcony for months, and now that I’ve finally thrown together a design plan I wanted to share it with you all!

We are lucky in that our balcony is a pretty decent size for a condo in our area, but since last summer was so rainy (and constant rain = horrible mosquitoes), we’ve barely gotten any use out of it. Now that we’ve been here a year, I’m really trying to make sure that we’re utilizing every space we have. If you’re looking for some small outdoor space inspiration, read on for my mood board and patio design game plan!

My goal when designing our patio space was to maximize space while providing us with a comfortable and aesthetically appealing place to relax (and eat dinner outside when it’s nice). Our current set-up definitely leaves a lot to be desired, so I’m excited to get this patio makeover started! This is what our patio looked like yesterday (excuse the crappy iPhone photo, I just wanted to get a quick before shot):

The main issue here is that there’s too much going on and there’s really nothing to make it unique or pretty. Our balcony is just too small to allow for an eating area AND a seating area, so in my design I opted to just keep a seating area. If we’re being honest, Darian and I typically eat at the coffee table anyways, so we can also eat at an outdoor coffee table when we decide to eat outside. I’m still on the hunt for a small outdoor coffee table to complete this look, so if you have any suggestions, please send them my way!

Since taking this photo, I’ve packed away the wood dining chairs, moved the table to sit between the adirondack chairs, put out the outdoor rug pictured in the mood board below, and added two of the accent pillows we received as gifts to the adirondack chairs. I want to wait until everything is complete to post after pictures, but I can assure you that it’s already a vast improvement!

Once I rearranged the furniture a bit, it was much easier to envision the setup of our patio design. Since the rest of our house has a ton of blues and greys in it, I wanted to do something a bit different for our outdoor space. Taking inspiration from Bridget of The DIY Playbook and Alaina Kaczmarski of The Everygirl and Elizabeth Street Post, I decided to go with a mainly neutral color scheme with some seasonal flowers to add a pop of color. Take a look at the design below!

The one great thing about having a small space is that it’s much easier to keep things affordable since there isn’t room for a ton of stuff! Cost-wise, this will end up being much more affordable for us because we included many of these items on our wedding registry and a few have already been purchased (S/O Alicia & Jennah, you guys are the best <3). But even without that, the entire cost of this patio design is fairly affordable at $500 – and that’s without the great sales that Target has every so often over the summer! The other great thing about this design is that it includes a lot of smaller items that you can purchase over time to space out the cost.

Moving forward, my plan is to keep the adirondack chairs where they are and set the IKEA loveseat up across from them. I’ll eventually replace the small table between the adirondack chairs with a small coffee table that that will go between the chairs and the loveseat. Unfortunately the big brown box has to stay because we have a decent amount of stuff that we need to store outside (#smallspaceprobs), but I do plan to spray paint it black using some outdoor spray paint so it matches the rest of the decor.

One the furniture is set up, I’m planning to place the tall black planters on either side of the storage box and fill them with some seasonal flowers (most likely some pink and purple pansies). I’ll also pick up a couple of the window box planters and hang them on the railing behind the loveseat. I’m thinking I’ll fill those with some white flowers – maybe hydrangeas? We’ll see what works! I’m also planning to pick up the black lanterns in the design from Michaels ASAP since they’re on major sale, and those will live on the coffee table.

The finishing touch will be the lights. Anyone who knows me knows that I am OBSESSED with string lights. We currently have a couple of sad, dingy strands of white lights that are zip tied to the sides of the balcony railing. My plan is to spray paint those black and pick up a couple more strands so I have 4 strands. Then I’ll pick up a few of these skinny wood posts from Home Depot. I’ll zip tie one to each corner of the balcony railing, and one will get attached to a heavy base and I’ll put that one against the wall between the adirondack chairs. By screwing a few hooks like these into the top of the posts, I’ll be able to easily string the lights above the balcony for some much-needed ambiance.

And that’s the plan for now! I’m so excited to bring some life and ambiance into our outdoor space. I’ll be sure to post some after pictures once the space feels complete. Are you also planning an outdoor makeover? Let me know in the comments – I’d love to hear your ideas!