Colour & Decorating

Transforming your balcony into your best place in house

“Balconies act as liminal spaces that bridge public and private life apart from value addition to a building or a house.” A beautiful and elaborately designed balcony may serve as a gateway to inner peace and tranquility for the modern man.

 

In a modern metropolitan lifestyle, balconies have become an essential component of urban architecture. From addressing the public audience to shading the streets from the scorching sun, balconies have served many purposes in their history, which dates back to thousands of years to the earliest of human civilizations.

They have inspired artists, poets, and writers who have immortalized them in their pieces, like a famously romantic scene from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, played out on a balcony. In present-day, however, the fundamental role of a balcony is to offer fresh air in cramped city design. To slow down and catch a breath from the frantic daily routine of home and work life, all you need is a cup of coffee and a comfy, carefully designed balcony to sit back in, relax and feel the rhythms of urban life.

There are several ways to transform your dull and boring balcony into a place where you can easily spend your whole day. It all depends on the structure of your balcony and your liking. For a balcony with a relatively smaller deck and a railing, having space for only a small table, a chair or both and room for some flowerpots, together with the use of lighter tones from exterior Wall Paints and glass railing/balustrades instead of the usual stainless steel railings, you can create an illusion of enlarged space in your balcony.

A mini veggie or flower garden can be made on your balcony by installing or hanging planters of colourful flowers and leafy greens along the railing or at the adjoining area of railing and deck. You can paint those pots with different colours or keep them monochrome, depending upon the overall colour choice for your balcony.

The pots can be sprayed with Plastic Primer from Spray, which will provide resistance against UV radiation and prevent cracks or breaks in them. To add a little dramatic effect to your balcony at night, you can spray those pots with Glow In The Dark from Spray, which will make those pots shine in bright greenish colour as soon as it gets dark. Apart from that, you can also create intricate patterns on the railing glass panels with the help of Frosted Glass from Spray.

For the deck floor, whether wooden, cementitious, or concrete, if it is in good shape, you can apply just a Varnish from Floor Paints, or Decking Oil to keep it that way. However, if it is not, you can look for other options such as Renovation Floor Paint to renew the floor, Decking Strips or Anti-Slip Spray or Anti-Slip Tape to resolve slip problems.

The selection of furniture for small balconies should be according to their space i.e., small with preferably rounded edges. However, in a more spacious balcony, you can play around with your choices. For a more romantic and comfier look, if there is a sturdy support structure on your balcony like pillars; installing a hammock can be a good choice. A simple old wooden table with a couple chairs restored with a smooth matte finish from the Spray Chalk Effect spray would look elegant in any kind of balcony. This spray comes in a variety of pleasant colours of matte paint, which can be applied on the walls and steel railing, too, along with the furniture.

In the words of a French sociologist, Henri Lefebvre: “Balconies act as liminal spaces that bridge public and private life apart from value addition to a building or a house.” A beautiful and elaborately designed balcony may serve as a gateway to inner peace and tranquillity for the modern man.


Colours for paints to be used in balcony designing
(from Isomat Colour palette):

1. Any of the lighter shades from Neutral colour palette

2. Any of the shade from the white wheel

3. From Pure Hue wheel: shades of orange

  • (LPC 0952, LPC 0962, LPC 0941, LPC 0854, LPC 0794, LPC 0874, LPC 0873, LPC 0862, LPC 0741),shades of red (LPC 0741, LPC 0593, LPC 0592, LPC 0591, LPC 0523, LPC 0522, LPC 0402, LPC 0412), shades of blue (LPC 1824, LPC 1823, LPC 1844, LPC 1932, LPC 1924, LPC 1923, LPC 1922, LPC 2013, LPC 2033, LPC 2115, LPC 2114, LPC 2113, LPC 2032), shades of green (LPC 1433, LPC 1432, LPC 1623, LPC 1622, LPC 1563, LPC 1562, LPC 1573, LPC 1453, LPC 1471).