Small Balcony Ideas: 7 Simple Steps To Pick The Perfect Lighting

Urban homes rarely come with an abundance of space, and most often, you end up having tiny balconies. But size is no barrier to creating a beautiful balcony space. You can always find creative small balcony ideas that can allow you to truly enjoy your outdoor spaces.

Due to the trends and developments in recent years, people prefer spending more time indoors. And that is why it becomes quite essential to decorate your home the best way you can so that you can experience that greater sense of well-being in the longer run. For now, we will stick to decorating your balcony as that is one space you’ll find yourself spending time if you need that breath of fresh air. And decorating your balcony is not just about accentuating the aesthetic value of your living space. Decorating your balcony can have a profound effect on your lifestyle, especially your physical and mental well-being.

When it comes to decorating your spaces, you should know that one of the biggest elements that build the ambience of a space is its lighting. Without the perfect balcony lights, your balcony may end up remaining unused, except when you put up festive decorations. Note that even in festive decorations, lighting tends to be the most prominent aspect. And with the right lighting, you add a special touch to your decor every day.

In this article, we will discuss seven steps to give your balcony a flavourful touch with a couple of lighting techniques. And we assure you that your space will transform into something beyond your wildest dreams. Sit back and take a closer look at everything we have for you.

Step 1: Consider the Space Available

To do justice to the decor of any space, you need to understand what you can and cannot do within it. For example, if you have a balcony garden, installing average recessed lights in the floor would be a bad idea because there would be a high risk of water and other agents of weathering causing damage.

So, the first thing to do while choosing balcony lights is to measure your available space and figure out which surfaces you can use to install lights. If there is a parapet available, you can use hanging lights for your balcony, especially pendant lights. But if you only have an awning covering the space, then you will have to stick with wall lights, table lamps or floor lamps.

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Don't forget to take floor space into consideration as well — and this should only include the amount of space left after any furniture or other outdoor decor is placed in your balcony. This will help you figure out which floor or table lamps you can use. Lights should be picked out after the furniture in any given space so that you don't end up limiting all your other options due to the lighting.

The final factor regarding available space involves electrical connections. Before you can choose your decorative lights, you'll need to know if it's viable to install the necessary electrical connections for them. After all, you wouldn't want to buy a hanging light only to find out later that your balcony ceiling isn't strong enough to carry it! It may be a good idea to consult with a professional designer or electrician about this if you aren't able to determine this yourself.

Step 2: Consider the Climate & Construction Style

This may sound like an obvious point, but there are nuances to it that you may not have thought about. Balcony spaces have varying construction styles that affect the degree to which your balcony is exposed to the elements of nature. And we definitely have seen a lot of people underestimating the weathering factors and that never ever ends well. Slightly older buildings tend to have more protected balconies - so much so that you only have to break down one wall to make the balcony a part of the attached room itself. Newer buildings, on the other hand, tend to have more exposed balconies that will require you to build more external walls if you want to extend the attached room.

Now, why does this matter when you’re looking at lighting options, and how does climate come into the picture? Let us explain.

Suppose your balcony is a modern, exposed one and you live in a humid region with frequent rainfall. You may carefully pick out lights that are water-resistant, but chances are that outdoor lights in these places will attract an annoying number of insects and flies that come out when it rains. If you want to use your balcony for pleasant evening reading… You get where we’re going with this, right?

The same situation changes drastically if your balcony is more conservatively designed. This is because it offers you the opportunity to easily install windows or mesh that will keep the pests at bay without ruining your view! Accordingly, you can choose hanging lights for balconies, such as the In-Depth Pendant Light. It isn’t meant for use outdoors, but because your balcony won’t exactly be an “outdoor space” per se, you can still use it.

Moreover, climate and construction style are both factors affecting the brightness of light that your balcony needs. Some spaces need brighter lighting than others and for longer periods than others, as well. The more exposed your balcony is, the less luminosity you’re likely to require for shorter periods, and vice versa.

Step 3: Plan Your Lighting Layout Properly

As mentioned in Step 1, the availability of space will do most of the work when it comes to determining which type of lighting you can go for. However, you may find that you've got multiple surfaces on which you can install lights. In such cases, you will need to make a choice.

Understand that the type of lighting you choose will affect what you can and can't do on your balcony. For example, placing the outdoor-friendly version of a lamp designed like Effortless on your balcony could mean that you won't have enough space left for a small table or desk, so fun things like playing board games will not be an option.

Similarly, recessed floor lighting can keep you from safely growing a balcony garden. So it is wise to figure out what you'd like to use your balcony for before looking at lighting options. The lights you choose should support what you want to do rather than limiting the options at your disposal.

If you'd like to keep your options open, the safest bet is to go for an outdoor wall light like Seventh Heaven. It features a sharp and sleek design that will go with almost any decor styles you may choose to decorate your balcony.

The best part is that all the lights in this range are made for outdoor use, so you don’t need to worry about how the elements will affect them. This brings us to the next step.

Step 4: A Theme Is Just What Your Balcony Needs

An eclectic design will be a breath of fresh air for your balcony as you can mix and match a lot of elements and play around with a lot of ideas. For the unversed, an eclectic design picks little elements from numerous sources to give you a perfectly balanced outdoor decor. There are a lot of things you can do for your outdoor space, but one of the most important additions you can make is an overhead lighting design. An overhead lighting design not only sets the tone of your space but also lends an unparalleled aura like none other.

There are many design languages and many design styles that you can choose for your space. The conventional design styles like modern design style, industrial, transitional, traditional, classical and more can adorn your spaces with ease and transform your space beyond your imagination.

Small Balcony Ideas

A few other trends that you can try for your balcony with lighting is recreating a cafe-style layout in the space. Bistro lighting is one of the newest ways to add flair to your outdoor space. Bistro lighting, also known as festoon lighting, is usually seen in cafes and restaurants. A bistro lighting layout can add a gorgeously intimate touch to your balcony, and it is not just the aesthetic value of the space that is accentuated. Festoon lighting can enhance the functionality of your space too. Another bonus that you get by installing bistro lighting is the space you save. You can install string lights, strip lights, and similar designs, and you’ll still have a lot of space to incorporate other elements. Let’s not forget that bistro lighting would be easy on the pocket too.

Step 5: Complement & Complete The Lighting Layout

There are a lot of ways to some depth and dimension to your balcony. Since lighting is the most prominent factor here, we can suggest a few ways to complement the lighting layout of your balcony and bring the best out of your space.

When it comes to your balcony, you can positively embrace your green fingers and add a stunning green cover to your space. Not only are the plants capable of enhancing the overall look of your balcony, they bring a plethora of benefits too. Plants are known for relieving stress, boosting productivity and creativity and, most importantly, eliminating the pollutants in the air too. There are countless ways you can incorporate greenery into your balcony. Sustainable planters are one of the best ways to go about decorating your balcony, and they interact with the lighting in the space really well. Lighting also interacts really well with a vertical garden or shelves with plants or planters that are suspended from the ceiling. You can go ahead with any of these designs and add some depth to your lighting layout.

Small Balcony decoration Ideas

Another way you can add some depth to your balcony decor is by placing home decor elements like sculptures and artifacts in the space. Sculptures can beautifully fill your space, especially if you have a coffee table or a patio table laying around on the balcony. Sculptures can become stunning focal points on your balcony if the lighting isn’t already a focal point. And if your sculptures aren’t larger-than-life or oversized, they can still enhance the existing focal points and add a flavourful touch to your balcony decor. With sculptures, you don’t have to worry about the weathering effect wearing them down. Most sculptures are crafted out of stone, wood, metal, marble, and similar materials. You may find a slight change in the colour of sculptures in the longer run, but there won’t be any critical damage that you can think of. And whenever the lighting in your balcony is switched on, the home decor will interact with it the same way everytime. You can choose whatever you’d like to flaunt in your space based on your preferences. The aim is to make your balcony decor appear fuller. Since it’s already an open space, a maximalist decor will undoubtedly add a unique touch to your home.

Step 6: Pick a Colour!

Finally, you need to choose the colour of light you want on your balcony. A majority of Indian households tend to be accustomed to white light, but a soft yellow tint has a touch of elegance and poise to it. However, neither will be perfect if you plan to make your balcony a tranquil and relaxed, meditative space. The same applies, perhaps, if you want to have a few plants and succulents growing there. To enhance either of these effects, you will be better served by blue, red, or green light.

You can choose to go with warm lighting in the space to create a soothing and serene atmosphere. You balcony is a leisurely space which can occasionally become functional if need be. But since this space is mostly going to be used for relaxation, warm lighting would just be a perfect choice here. During the sunsets, or late evenings, when you just feel like winding down, warm lighting will infuse a tranquil aura into your balcony, and it will transform you into a different world altogether. However, if you think you will be using your balcony a lot more in the dark and you require it to be particularly functional, then a white or natural white light would be perfect for the space.

Apart from that, you also have to think about the colours you’ll give to your balcony itself. As we mentioned before, one of the most common colours used for this space is white. White is definitely a good colour to flaunt, but at the same time, your balcony loses that curbside appeal, and it can appear slightly bland. You can go with pure neutral touch for your balcony with simple shades like black, brown, grey and pair them with white to give an exceptional touch to your space. The neutral colours interact beautifully with warm lighting or cool lighting at night, and they also look gorgeous with natural light. And if you want a pop of colour for your balcony, then consider going with primary shades like red, green, blue, and yellow. You can also accentuate the aesthetic value of your balcony by coordinating the colours of other decorative elements with the primary colours of your balcony.

Given the space constraints typical to urban homes, it might make a lot of sense to keep your options open as far as colour goes. To do this, you can choose Smart LED lights like Artistic, which allows you to change the colour as per your preference. We highly recommend that you contact us on 1800 103 0054 or write to us at help@whiteteak.com to check whether a given product is safe for outdoor use before installing it to ensure the maximum safety and longevity of your decorative lights.

Step 7: Let The Lighting Complement Your Flooring

The interaction between your lighting and flooring can do a lot to determine the ambience of your balcony. Most lights are designed to direct their lighting downwards and that might be the case with lighting fixtures you place in your balcony. And if you have a hanging light installed in the place, then you definitely have a lot of light bouncing back on your floor. The most common types of flooring people use on a balcony are laminate flooring, stone flooring, tile flooring, wood flooring and, in some cases, textile flooring too.

Now each of these flooring types interacts differently with lighting. And simply put, warm lighting brings out the warmer tones through the floor, and cool lighting brings out the colder tones. With wooden flooring, laminate flooring, or stone flooring, warm lighting is the ideal choice to make and warm lighting will definitely bring out the best of your balcony as a whole. And if it’s tile flooring or textile flooring, then cool lighting will be a better choice.

Head on to our homepage to feast your eyes on some of the finest luxury lighting designs you’ve ever laid your eyes on. Also, keep an eye out on this space for more such tips and tricks to transform your beautiful abodes.