I have been trying to utilise our balcony to its fullest without losing its charm for a long time. It is a small area – around 9*4 feet. My first idea was to keep it as a clean clear balcony, just to enjoy sunshine an rain and moon and stars. It soon turned out that it was not easy to ensure that clutter didn’t find its’s place to the balcony (I wonder how clutter replicates itself!).
The next idea was to create a vertical garden on the walls. Some trellis, tea candles and a comfy two seater with a folding table to complete the look. I discussed with Vinu and he offered full support (verbal and monetary, no physical labour or handiwork 😛 ). As usual, he was skeptical about my grand plans. We’d decided to cover a considerable area of the balcony wall, so I went ahead and ordered twenty pots and around 4 Kg of coco peat. This was the vertical garden planter that I’d purchased, as there were very few options at the time. I notice that a wider choice is available at a better price now.
Now these planters require a iron grill to hang them on, and I couldn’t get them online. I tried t persuade Vinu and failed terribly. I approached my dad who offered to help, but had been busy as usual (He says I am very spcific about my requirements, so he’d better get a very clear picture before venturing out. Well, he’s got a point). The planters work really well as pen holders, paint brush holders, declutters, what not! They have served as anything, but a vertical garden pot.
Now, the final plan was to convert the balcony into a Laundry area. Currently, we use our second bedroom as out laundry room. I wish to give it to its rightful owner (our toddler son 😀 ), so the washer and airer lines have to move somewhere. We were postponing stuff indefinitely, until our IFB washing machine broke down. It’s motor and PCB was gone. That was an omen. We had to get it repaired or get a new one. And I was longing for a new one.
I shortlisted a few washer-dryer machines – the ones that give a 100% drying. These are not common in our areas. But it saves a lot of ‘woman’ hours. I’d also seen some good deals on washer -dryers in amazon.in and was pretty excited about these.
Here are the ones that I’d shortlisted.
Amazon sellers were not delivering to my area, so I had to settle on a local vendor and I figured I should be happy with a washing machine and clothesline. After all, we get sunshine for around 300 days in a year and a 100% dryer is adding to our carbon footprint. So I settled on Bosch WAK20165IN. It’s a 6.5 kg front load machine and I love it!
Back to my balcony makeover. We cleared the clutter, Rohan and I texture painted a highlight wall, and all set for the washer. Our waterline was a bit short, so I can’t position the machine to showcase the full glory of my highlight wall, but that’ll be fine for another couple of weeks. I am determined to fix it. 😉
The next important item is the clothesline. I want something that would move out of way and out of sight at least when not in use. zigzag folding ones are not very appealing to me, so I settled on the following.
- Wall mounted, telescopic folding clothesline
- Wall mounted, folding clothesline
- Ceiling mounted clothesline with pulley
I’d considered a few more before finalising on these, as these suit my balcony dimensions and requirements perfectly.
Finally my balcony received the makeover it totally deserved. 🙂