Welcome To My Home: Big News!

While the apartment I currently live in serves me well, my lease is up mid-august and I AM MOVING!!

This is awesome news for my blog, as decorating a new apartment will surely generate lots of material about which to write.

My current apartment has 2 bedrooms and is about 670 square feet. It also has wood floors in the bedrooms. It doesn't have any outdoor space or a dishwasher, and I have to pay to use the washer and dryer which are in the basement.

My new apartment is 1 bedroom, but 970 square feet, and has a balcony, dishwasher and washer/dryer IN UNIT! Both the living room and the bedroom have sliding doors that go out to the balcony. The kitchen/dinning/living room is one big open space.

I'm super excited to work on decorating an outdoor space. Since I decided I would be moving, I've been paying super close attention to other bloggers posts about outdoor spaces. If I could choose anyone to come furnish my balcony for me, it would probably be Nicole from Making it Lovely- Infact, my inspiration for the bench/loveseat that I'm after is straight from her blog.

Nicole posted this picture just days after I had seen the same bench in Target, but we have had similar luck in tracking one down.

I found another contender, this time at JCPenney, but had similar issues- on backorder online, and not available in the store. Also this bench was quite a bit more pricey than the Target version and the Ikea option.

She then decided to go with two benches from Ikea, and I can't lie, I think thats a pretty solid option. The benches look very fetch on her front porch:

Could my balcony look like that?

I also wonder, could I use more than 2 of those benches as a sectional? I've always wanted a balcony that is like one featured on Style Channels show "Dress my Nest" with Thom Felicia. This outdoor space was designed for Audrina Patridge, of MTV's show "The Hills." Both her space and her budget are bigger than what I have to work with, but it serves as excellent inspiration.

I think the important things to remember are: streamlined upholstered furniture, bold throw pillows, and accessories. I'm seriously excited to start working on this space!
I was able to get into my unit today to take a look (previously I had only seen units like it), and I took some pictures. I'm not going to share them all at once, but since we're talking about the balcony I figured I could share those.

I will be on the second floor. You can see the balcony is rather larger- according to the website it is 18'6 long and 5'4 wide. I probably would have guessed it is wider. As you can see, there are TWO sliding doors-- one in the living room and one in the bedroom. My cats are going to love running laps, I'm sure.

Below: Potential Balcony set up: