Ideas for making the most of your balcony in the city

All city dwellers will readily acknowledge the upside of living in the metropolis. However, the trade-off of living in town is usually a relatively limited living space. Far from being discouraged by it, residents channel their creativity to find nifty ways to maximize their useful space.

Nowhere is this ingenuity better expressed than in the variety of ways people arrange and decorate their balcony. Here are some ideas culled from the Web.

Here a plant, there a plant
Whether you have majestic ferns or small tufts of flowers, give your plants an interesting place to take root. If you put your mind to it, you’ll find that plant holders can come in many shapes and sizes. For instance, sunflowers look snazzy in one of those old-fashioned round silver trash cans; herbs tuck away nicely in an old toolbox; and flowers feel fabulous in an empty fruit basket.Let your imagination run wild!

Ideas on the table
When space is at a premium, having a table on the balcony seems out of the question. But if you think about it, the essential function of a table is to provide a space on which to rest a cocktail, a meal or a notebook. Hence, the realization that a variety of objects can do the trick: a shelf solidly anchored to the railing or a flipped-over wooden crate, for example. Be creative!

Touch wood
You know that distressed wood can lend a certain cachet to your decor. Beyond its appearance, though, the wood you salvage in bits and pieces here and there can also help save a ridiculous amount of space. Old 2X4 planks can be assembled into lovely little benches; abandoned mouldings can get a second life as shelves; and long, slender planks can serve as roofing elements. The possibilities are endless.