You can check out the outdoor floor tiles like the Scala (Google Snap and Go tile) which are easy to piece additionally on the ground for a new look. ;) I saw another brand here, http://list.qoo10.sg/item/OUTDOOR-TIMBER-FLOOR-TILE-SINGAPORE-SELLER-100-AUTHENTIC-BEAUTIFUL/482453309 (not sure where this brand is from but they all work the same). They even have faux grass, stones as well as timber. Definitely easy to DIY, and you can combine different surfaces together if you want (stones and wood combo for example).

Artificial turf! The green (they come in different colours, too, if you'd like to be psychedelic) adds a lively pop of colour to a blah space, and they're designed in easy-to-install tile-style units that have some built-in drainage for minimal maintenance. Absolut Outdoors and Green Turf can tell you more :) And I'd hang an outdoor art piece or a screen for air plants on that blank wall, too, to enliven your balcony.

I'm not a pro (and I hope a real designer answers your question), but here's how my family does it in Singapore: 1. Get rid of things. Don't fall prey to sunk cost fallacies. Just because you bought a piece of furniture or a bunch of clothing or books or toys or whatever, doesn't mean you need to keep them if they are no longer working for you. You can sell stuff on Carousell or donate them to needy people. Sometimes not having those things will provide more value, by freeing up space, than the false belief that you need to keep things around because you paid for them. 2. Everything should be multi-function. Especially here in Singapore, everything should have multiple uses. Your bed can lift up to provide storage. Your book shelf can also be your entertainment stand. Your coffee table can double as a breakfast nook or homework table. No tool in your kitchen should be a one-job tool (for example, if you have a blender, a food processor, a spice grinder, an immersion blender, a coffee grinder and a mortar and pestle - maybe it's time to clean out the kitchen cabinets). 3. Rotate toys We have a baby at home and try really hard not to accumulate too many toys. To do that we have two toy bins. Every two weeks we switch the bin that's in rotation, so every two weeks our baby gets "new" toys that he hasn't seen for a few weeks. That allows us to keep the total number of toys to a minimum and he seems to be pretty happy (and hasn't caught on to this trick yet). Hope that helps some. Google around for "small apartment" blogs and ideas - there is a ton out there. Andrew

Hi everyone, My basement got some water after the recent storms in our area. We had vinyl planks flooring and had to pull all of it out, damaging most of it in the process. We are certainly not looking into putting flooring down again, and we are considering epoxy flooring. I want to ask here your opinions, experience, and pros and cons of polished concrete floors Atlanta. Ideally, we would prefer to do it ourselves as the cost to hire out appears to be astronomical. We saw a company called Everlast Epoxy and wonder if anyone here knows about them and their product. Thank you for sharing your thoughts and opinions.