I have enjoyed reading this forum for the past month or two. This is a summer of transition for our house and gardens and in the coming weeks I will be seeking some design advice. But for now I will share one small finished section of our project.

Our house has undergone a facelift from a fairly cookie cutter ranch house to a house with a lot more individuality and a contemporary look. The most dramatic element of the remodel is a new balcony. I am fortunate to travel to the Swiss Alps with some regularity (I have family nearby) and Switzerland is the land of alpine balconies with killer views and red geraniums. So these balconies inspired the planting choices for our new balcony. That said, our place is contemporary so I had to find the perfect containers to keep the look modern.

So, here are the inspiration photos.

A typical house with abundant geraniums. This isn't a particularly great example, but you get the idea.

OK, this photo is the amazing one. As you can tell, this house is waaaay up high. But note the windowboxes with red geraniums. I think it's so neat that a house this high up in the mountains would have flowerboxes. I joke that geraniums must be mandatory over there because not only are they on every house, but they are even at gas stations and most impressively, I have even seen them at the sewage treatment plant, hanging on the railings that surround the treatment pools.

So here is our interpretation of the modern balcony + red geraniums

This is just one small accent of our new project and there is still so much work to do to marry the new look of the house with new gardens that compliment the style. But since the finish line is still months away I thought I would share this one small success!

I could even see the steel I beam painted red, but that's just me .

Also like the steel and wood railing details.
Looking forward to following your progress.

Thanks for the inspirational post.

Deviant, nice that you pointed out all the details that we sweated over. :) We will bring in one more element of red. Either red Loll Designs Adirondack-esque chairs, or some red trim, or something. The house color and roof color are going to change too, so we will hold off on that last splash of red for now.

In the meantime I am laboring over a stone wall in the side yard. And I do mean laboring! It's a lot harder to create a crisp, contemporary landscape than an informal cottage garden.