My little family of four currently lives in a condo that my husband and I (with tons of help from my parents) renovated (overhauled!) the summer we bought it.  Most of it’s complete.  Just a few of those last niggly details remain: like a piece of baseboard here, or a towel bar to hang there… But one tiny space remained untouched.  Until now.

I finally embarked on a balcony makeover.  My goal was to create a more functional, beautiful, useable space to enjoy for as cheap as can be.  ‘Cuz that’s how I roll.

And I’m going to share with you a few ways UsedRegina helped me acheive this.

It started with the chair.  I’d been searching for something for a while on UsedRegina, and it had to be: compact, weatherproof, good looking, comfortable, and cheap.  Tall order.  But I came accross this director’s chair for $10, and thought it might fit the bill!

The best part is that it folds up,  making it easy to store in the cold Saskatchewan winter months.  I originally planned to paint it and redo the seat and back with outdoor fabric… but when we picked it up I was delighted to find it was in great shape, and that the fabric was already great for outdoor use!  Hooray!  However if you’re searching for an outoor chair but find one that isn’t weather resistant, and are willing to do a bit of work, remember that a lot of spray paints are good for outdoor use, and there are a plethora of beautiful outdoor fabrics out there now!  (I ended up using my fabric to recover some patio chair pads I’d bought on end-of-summer clearance.)

This next project was created from stuff I already own, but would be another good one to use UsedEverywhere for.  It’s the easiest outdoor lighting DIY project ever.  You ready?

STEP ONE: put outdoor Christmas lights in a cool object.

Done.

For me I used the Knappa pendant shade from IKEA because I already had it.  (It’s no longer at IKEA, but there are a few available on UsedRegina).  It’s plastic and I figured it’d do OK outdoors.

But you could also search for jars, lanterns, vases, fishbowls, bottles… anything waterproof (glass or plastic are good).  Here are a few options I found that would work well:

I think these antique jars are so cool:

If you didn’t want to see the strand of lights inside you could frost them with a frosting spray paint (available at craft stores), but I think they’d look great without!  (Especially if you had a cool looking strand of lights).

And these globe light covers are plentiful and cheap, so they’re great to use for a modern-looking light.

(And you may want to see how Canadian blogger Karen Bertelson used these in her outdoor space.)

And if you want multiple lights for your yard, there always seems to be somebody selling used centrepieces from their wedding.  (Vases or lanterns would work well!)

You’ll have to do some figuring about how to put the lights/cord in your object.  I literally just balled up the lights, stuck them inside, and tied the bottom up with some grosgrain ribbon so they wouldn’t fall out.  But if you’re using one of the glass or ceramic choices I suggested you may want to use some of my suggestions on drilling through ceramic…

And this was a cool discovery!  Apparently people sell garden plants on UsedRegina!  If you’re looking to start or expand your garden you should totally check this out in your city.  You can buy established plants that have been cared for, and you may even get some helpful teaching and advice from an experienced, friendly gardener like I did!  I found a lady selling some Lily of the Valley (a perrenial that spreads), which I was able to pick up for 2 bucks!  It adds some greenery to the balcony in a little planter picked up on clearance.

So there you go – a few ways UsedEverywhere can help you savour the last days of summer.