How to equip a balcony

The balcony is one of the most comfortable places in the entire home. Here you can relax, breathe fresh air, smoke, and in general, do whatever you want - it depends on how you want to arrange a balcony or loggia.

During the repair, in no case should this part of the house be ignored, and the design largely depends on its size.

If earlier the balcony was something like a pantry, where old and unnecessary things were stored, now, if desired, you can make a full-fledged room out of it. This can be done by turning on your own imagination at full power or by applying a specific design solution.

To begin with, let's look at the main differences between a balcony and a loggia.

The most important of them - during the construction of the building, balconies are taken out of its facade, acting as separate outbuildings. This scheme does not apply to loggias, which are more like one of the rooms. As a rule, both structures are heated, however, if you are selling an apartment, you must definitely specify whether a balcony or loggia is installed in your apartment.

Also, the differences between these structures include the fact that the balconies always have the same shape, however, the volume of the balcony can be larger or smaller. Loggias have different shapes, but the area is usually about the same.

To begin with, it is worth deciding whether you want to equip the loggia in a decorative way or on a larger scale - glaze the balcony and seal the rest of the structures.

It depends on the wishes of the client, as well as on climatic conditions - few people want their balcony to suffer from an abundance of rain and snow in autumn and winter.

An open balcony is a very good option, especially if the climate permits. You can bask on it in spring and summer, grow plants or equip it in a specific way. An excellent decoration for an open balcony or loggia will be the original forging or an abundance of living plants. It also depends on whether the owner wants his balcony to be decorated to match the rest of the balconies of the house or his desire to stand out, to show his individuality.

A good option for decorating a balcony is the creation of living plantings. They should be located so that there is enough space for furniture. Not bad on the open balcony will look like a summer veranda. Furniture on such a veranda should be chosen light, and even better folding, so that it can be brought into the house during the cool season. In general, it is worth focusing also on good flooring. If the balcony is located on the first or second floor, the installation of gratings will not be superfluous. In general, such an arrangement of a balcony will not take too many resources.

And if this is where all the options for arranging an open balcony end, then much more of them are provided for closed balconies. However, keep in mind that this will take twice as much time and money.

First of all, you need to assess the condition of the fences and slabs. Emphasis should also be placed on the creation of thermal insulation, the elimination of various gaps. In some cases, more drastic measures are required - the demolition and replacement of the balcony block itself. After that, attention is paid to laying electrical wiring, arranging the floor and walls. The last steps are the competent selection of furniture and additional elements, and then the addition of a holistic picture with accessories and decor items.

When choosing a balcony glazing, also be careful: there are two varieties of this function - "cold" and "warm". The first is provided for those cases when the glass is placed purely symbolically. Standard frames may not even be used, and if desired, wooden sashes are installed.

Things are more complicated with "warm" glazing. However, it has more advantages - a wide window sill provides complete freedom of action, and dense double-glazed windows will help you escape from high temperatures. In addition, such double-glazed windows guarantee a high level of sound insulation. It is not at all necessary to install classic double-glazed windows - fortunately, modern designers offer a large selection of glasses - these are stained-glass windows, tinting or original photo printing. Similar techniques can be used on the entire area of the double-glazed window or on a specific section of it. In this matter, you can show your imagination to the fullest together with your designer.

The next step is to take care of installing waterproofing mechanisms and insulation. Maximum financial resources should be invested in these works, because low-quality mechanisms, or installed incorrectly, can only do harm. Due to problems with insulation, furniture and other mechanisms can deteriorate - repairs will simply have to be redone.

As a rule, foam acts as a floor insulation. It should be noted that the insulation must be started only after the elimination of all cracks.

Very often, in order to insulate the loggia with high quality, they use a special "warm floor" created using a special technology. You will be able to regulate the temperature of such a coating, on which the atmosphere in the entire room directly depends.

After that, you need to do the installation of electrical wiring. It depends on many factors: whether repairs are being carried out in the entire apartment, whether there are heated floors in the loggia, how many appliances are planned to be placed on the loggia. In extreme cases, you can not spend money and time on this, but use the simplest extension cord, before that, having calculated the maximum voltage. In general, the number of lighting fixtures is closely related to the future purpose of the room. For example, if you plan to spend warm summer evenings on your loggia, then a couple of lamps will suffice, but if the balcony is used as an office or leisure room, you will have to place much more lamps. Naturally, the larger the size of the balcony, the more lighting devices will be required.

As for the choice of flooring for the balcony, here you can choose the same assortment as for other rooms. Among them are tiles, carpet, linoleum, laminate, parquet, as well as the previously mentioned underfloor heating.

If we talk about the colors that will prevail in the interior of the loggia and balcony, everything directly depends on the style of the room, its size and purpose. For example, with the help of light colors, you can visually enlarge a small room, but if the furniture is already made in dark colors, then other interior items can brighten up this picture with their richness and brightness.

What are the options for decorating a balcony room?
Of course, on the loggia or balcony, you can simply put out chairs and sofas to relax there from everyday affairs. However, in modern interior design there are more original and practical ideas for arranging this area.

These include placing a room for children on the balcony, a miniature gym, a personal office for work, a hookah room, a billiard room and other interesting solutions. We will now consider some of them in more detail.

1. Room for food. No, this does not mean at all that a semblance of a kitchen should be erected on the site of the loggia. If in the kitchen you are preparing food, then here you will eat it. As a rule, such a room is decorated quite romantically. If the loggia is small, you can arrange a wide window sill as a surface on which food will be placed. The owners of large balconies are much more fortunate - they can put a whole kitchen table and a couple of chairs in this room. Or one, if desired. It will look great if you can admire the magnificent view from the balcony during the reception.

2. Another interesting design option for this space is to create a room for reading or for leisure. In this case, on the loggia it will be necessary to place racks on which books will be placed. Soft sofas, armchairs and other pieces of furniture will complement this beautiful picture. Of course, you should also take care of good lighting, which is so important while reading.

3. Another convenient and very useful way to use a place on the balcony is to organize a personal office there. You are mistaken if you think that this idea is subject only to the owners of large balconies and loggias. In order to put a desktop and a comfortable chair or armchair, you do not need a lot of space. Improve the overall look of small decor items.

4. If you still want to equip the balcony room according to the classics, putting unnecessary things there, then it is better to opt for built-in wardrobes. Even better if they have a mirror surface. This will create a visual effect that cabinets do not take up much space. The necessary little things that have nowhere to put can be hidden in small shelves under the window sills. In addition, a good place to store various things is the compartments at the bottom of the sofas and armchairs. Thus, on the balcony you can combine both a place to relax and storage space for things that have nowhere to put.

5. It is not necessary to spend money on buying additional furniture that you place on the balcony. This can be done with your own hands - this is a great occasion to give free rein to your imagination and improve your professionalism. Excellent for such a situation, as mentioned above, light wicker furniture is suitable.

As you understand, there are still a lot of options to equip the balcony in an original and unusual way. Here you can organize a fitness room, a corner for a particular activity, or even a bathhouse. The only thing - it is important to remember that some too bold ideas require special permissions, which you need to find out in advance.

When you are renovating the entire apartment, you should not leave a balcony overboard. From this, even a very small space, you can organize a very cozy corner. In addition, here you can create a certain small room for a specific activity, a place for which there was no place in the whole dwelling before. Do not be afraid to experiment, and do not save money on the quality of materials and installation - then you will get a bright, original and stylish balcony, which will be nice to be with your family members, friends, or just relax alone after a hard day. Choose the most daring ideas from the range of modern designers and decorate your balcony the way you want!


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