I think I would close it up on both interior and exterior and take out the balcony. Or turn the window into a french door and put rails on the balcony. I would still get rid of the door opening in that case but save the door because shaker doors are really cool. I'd find another eay to use the door, maybe for decor, IDK.

I would leave it as is, unless you intend to remove it. Hanging a curtain over it would look odd, because the rod would have to be low due to the gabled ceiling.

Take the door and trim off, and finish the wall, both inside and out. Easy to do, and you can do it all yourself.

If you like quirky cottagey style, you could fit a long mirror into the middle and maybe hooks on the sides.

I think that's way cool. Do you celebrate Christmas? Keep it for easy access to put a Santa figure, Christmas tree, or other holiday ornament. :)

If someone could walk off that balcony or ledge, I would install a safety railing before I moved in, especially if there are children!

You could close off the opening from the outside and fill in the doorway with shallow shelves. Tie or jewelry storage? Maybe an ironing board in there? Canned goods if you're a Prepper. ; )

Before suggesting what to do with the door it would be good to know what you will use this room for, and if you are in a historical district? Old homes are not well insulated and If the room will get a lot of use the outside door will probably make the room cold and drafty in the winter so it would make sense to take it out and close the opening. But if you are in a historic district there may be restrictions on what you can do that changes the exterior area of the house.

Thanks for all the comments and suggestions everyone!

I was afraid that we would be pretty limited on our options because of the placement of the door.

I do like the making it a bookshelf idea, but if we were to close off the outside , I think we would just wall it off completely if we went that route.

No railing is sort of a concern for us if we do decide to have children... but when i say "balcony".. its more like it goes out onto the roof of the kitchen. Its odd to say the least. I wish there was an old picture of how they had it set up with the apartment upstairs.

It is pretty drafty and we chatted a bit with the renters before, and they had children in the room and they said they had to keep the temp turned up fairly high to keep them warm enough. We live in Minnesota so it can get cold!

I never thought of the historical district part... its a smaller city, and the neighborhood we're in has a mix of old an new houses... but this house is definitely one of the older houses on the street. I suppose it wouldn't hurt to check up on that.

If it's unsafe, the inspection should have noted it to be corrected prior to closing.

I would remove it and install an interior/exterior wall.

Our inspector thought the door was odd, but didn't label it as unsafe. Looking back on it, maybe we should have mentioned something, but at the time, it didn't really bother us.

It still doesn't really bother me other then the fact its an eyesore.

I like Fori's idea of a full length mirror and cool-looking hooks for hats, scarfs and such.

We just purchased a farmhouse that used to be utilized as office space for a private school. In addition to a strange, choppy layout with huge bedrooms (formerly "offices") and little common space, each of the 4 bedrooms has an emergency exit door to the outside. Really odd.

We're going to close them all off with walls or windows, except for maybe the master depending on our new layout. I don't think I'd leave a door leading to a roof or unsafe balcony.

I too would like to know your vision/intent for that space. I would be inclined to celebrate the area. Looks like a great bonus room destination. Get railing, make it a sitting porch, assuming the kitchen roof can hold you!! With that window right there (behind the curtain?) connecting the holes,centering for french doors seems like a no brainer.

Some older homes used to have a door to a micro "balcony" that was referred to something like a rug door or maid's door-the exact term escapes me. The intent was to have a place to shake out rugs, dust mops, etc. Without walking downstairs.

I could see that being a possibility about the door being a side door for cleaning. And somewhere down the road they made stairs and converted the upstairs to an apartment.

As for what our intentions , as of right now we're hoping a nursery / child's bedroom if everything goes well. Thats why I'm thinking closing it off would be the best option for the long term but my husband seems against it for some reason and is leaning towards the adding a railing and making it a small sitting area/deck.

I would install a metal railing directly on the exterior trim in front of the door in black. Then leave the door locked and treat it like a window. does it have a window on it? Otherwise I'd close it up.

If you think in the future after children (who sometimes climb out of beds and even cribs and wander at night) are grown up you might want to recapture that outside space, you can always close it up in such a way as to leave the door framing. That would give you the option to one day re-open the wall and create an outdoor sitting space. But if little ones are in the future- you will probably never get a good nights sleep fretting it they might walk out that door and fall off the roof! Husbands can sometimes be sooo silly : )