DIY Small Rental Apartment Balcony Makeover

2 Materials
$140
2 Hours
Easy

One of the first things I did when I moved into my rental apartment is give the balcony a makeover. But after living there for 5 years, I was ready for a new look! I had installed reed fencing panels to cover up the concrete walls but I was tired of that look and wanted to change things up.

The first thing I needed to do was remove the reed fencing panels - since I'm a renter, I had to get creative to install them.

I attached them to wood wall caps that I built to fit snugly on top of the balcony wall. This way I didn't have to make any holes in the concrete.

I had seen artificial greenery panels while out on a walk around my neighborhood and that's where I got the idea to do the same thing on my balcony. After searching online for a while, I decided to order these artificial boxwood panels from Amazon - I wasn't sure what to expect but I was pleasantly surprised.

Even when I compared them with the real thing, they still looked amazing!

I needed 12 panels to cover the entire back wall (about 3ftx10ft) - the panels snap together and you can cut them with scissors if you need to trim them.

The panels can be secured to metal railings or fences with zip ties (they come with the panels) but since I had a solid concrete wall, I used screws to attach them to the top of the wall caps.

This was the plain balcony before...

And after...I can't say enough how much I love how this turned out! Having that lush green wall as a backdrop completely transformed my balcony and also make it look and feel bigger!

This was just part of the total makeover, which included DIY furniture, smart outdoor LED lighting and DIY wall art, all of which you can see in this video.

Suggested materials:
  • Artificial boxwood panels
  • Reed fencing
Engineer Your Space
Want more details about this and other DIY projects? Check out my blog post!
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Frequently asked questions
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  • DeeDee Bibbs DeeDee Bibbs on Jul 20, 2020

    Where did you get the lights from and are they electric or solar?


  • Barb Stiv Barb Stiv on Jul 22, 2020

    That looks amazing, great job

  • Chris Allen Chris Allen on Jul 25, 2022

    How did you build the surround privacy slatted walls?

Comments
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2 of 102 comments
  • Dmotan Dmotan on Jul 25, 2022

    You balcony is so charming and inviting.

    You did a good job and extra kudos for not having to nail or screw into any of the property.

  • Linda Wells Linda Wells on Jul 26, 2022

    It looks great. Good job. You are very talented.

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