Being surrounded by other flats, we don't enjoy much of a view - just a slice of sky that fortunately lets in a lovely amount of light.
In the hopes of bringing a little of that outdoors in, we displayed a variety of green plants - both real and faux - in our balcony. It's always nice to have something to look at in the mornings.
To let more light in, we installed the super slim grilles by Pang Giap - we love the result!
We are always on a lookout for realistic fake plants, and found a few good ones that we have displayed around the house. We love the ones from HOOGA and IKEA, while KINEX also houses a few shops with great quality faux flowers and foliage!
Try displaying faux plants next to real ones - you'd find that it will blend in better, and usually our guests can't tell the difference!
Two of our longest-lasting plants are this Everfresh Tree from Plunt.co and Milk Confetti from The Nursery! We find that plant shops like them offer great advice in the choice of plants and plant care.
We adding hanging plants as well to create a cosier vibe - ferns, with their sprawling leaves, are wonderful for this purpose. We also mounted an IKEA wall rack to accommodate low-maintenance plants like tiny cactuses and air plants.
The very first plant we bought was this Juniper plant from The Nursery, and it takes pride of place in our balcony - it's a delight to nurture.
After a few failures, we better understood our space, the amount of sunlight it offers and our busy schedules. We sought out plants are easier to care for, like the small Peperomia Tetragona.
The use of terracotta tiles here really helps to bring this space into the outdoors. We also placed a bigger plant from The Nursery to "anchor" the space. This Ficus plant thrives on indirect light and requires only weekly watering.
After livening up this balcony space with these houseplants, we found that the kids really enjoy spending time here. They often help to water the plants!
It's especially useful when they're sick and staying home - they have been using the balcony to get some sun and indulging in sensory play here. At times, we even pull out the inflatable pool for water play!