Welcome to the last week of the One Room Challenge! If you haven’t been following along, you can check out my plan to makeover our apartment balcony here.
I’m proud to say that I accomplished my project wish list I started the room makeover with:
You can check out the DIY tutorials for prior week’s projects here:
All of these projects work well even if you live in an apartment with limited space, tools, etc. They are also great ways to change up your space without having to make any permanent changes that are going to break your lease when you move out.
Here is the end result:
Before and after photos: Transforming my apartment balcony from bland to a relaxing space I love
Lessons learned through this apartment balcony transformation
Here are some lessons I learned through this project that might help you with your own home renovations.
Create a holistic plan
When creating a plan for your DIY room makeover, think about the project as a whole. Ask, how do you want the space to feel?
By thinking about each individual aspect of the project as part of a whole, everything will go together and result in a space you love.
Be flexible
While planning out your project ahead of time is a great way to get started, it’s also important to remain flexible throughout as situations come up.
For example, I was originally going to put up a trellis on our side wall with some vines, however once we got to Ikea to pick up the trellis I had my eye on, I learned that it required you to nail it to the wall in order to stay up. Because I live in an apartment and it’s a wall with siding on it, nailing it wasn’t an option.
So I had to come up with a new plan. Instead of the trellis, I went with a few different hanging plant features.
Be kind with yourself
Another big lesson I learned through this process is to always be gentle with yourself. With any DIY project, you will make mistakes, get behind schedule, or have to change the plan. If something doesn’t turn out as you had envisioned, it’s okay!
When I started this project, things started to get really busy at work and I felt like each week I was falling behind my original schedule. At first, I was upset with myself, but then I realized that I was trying my best and that’s all that mattered. And in the end, I now have an apartment balcony I love!
Comment below if you’ve tried any of these projects yourself and let me know how they turned out!