Understanding the Constraints of Your Balcony or Terrace
When the time comes to redesign and renovate your outdoor space, it’s easy to let your imagination run wild. You might fall in love with a beautiful image in Architectural Digest or the memory of a wonderful seaside terrace in your favourite vacation spot. While these make great inspiration, it’s rarely possible to reproduce a space exactly as you intend it.
In order to take full advantage of the best characteristics of your balcony or terrace, and realise your vision and dreams for the space, you must study its layout and the outdoor conditions, and minimise the aspects of the space that don't support how you want to use it.
Below, we offer six points of consideration that can affect your enjoyment of your balcony, and some advice for how to minimise their impact so you can maximise your summer fun. If you pay attention to these six factors, you’ll go a long way in making your space more livable, comfortable, and charming.
1. Sun and Shade
To begin, it’s important to study your balcony or terrace throughout the day. When do you get the most sun, and are there times in the day when your balcony is either too hot or too cold?
As you track sun and shade in your space, remember to consider the ways in which you'll be using your balcony or terrace. If you envision lots of evening barbeques with friends and family, and you have a southern or western facing exposure, you might find that July and August are overwhelmingly hot and sunny in this later part of the day.
On the other hand, if you imagine growing juicy tomatoes on your shady, north-facing balcony, you may have issues getting enough sunshine. Make a list of all the ways you want to use your space, with the times of day each of these activities are desired, and then note the conditions accordingly. There are ways to add shade and adapt your space to suit how you'd like to use it. These include simple fabric shades and colours (blues for a psychological cooling effect and yellows and reds to make the space feel warmer; sun sails, or decorative panels, and have the bonus effect of also making your space more private — an issue we’ll explore more in this post.
2. Wind Speed and Temperature
Along with sun and shade, heat, humidity and wind also affect the comfort of your balcony or terrace. A light breeze at street level can feel like a gale at penthouse level, and the heat can also feel more intense many stories above ground. If possible, take temperature and wind speed readings to determine the average conditions on your balcony, and set your expectations accordingly.
While you’re discovering which areas are the windiest, the warmest, and the coolest, also note where falling leaves, snow or dust are apt to pile up. This can affect the layout of your balcony or terrace when designing it, and can also prompt you to install some cover to mitigate these issues.
Remember too that the air temperature, relative humidity and wind speed have an impact on your body's thermal comfort. Hot or cold spots on your balcony or terrace can be made to “feel” cooler or warmer with the right decor, such as placing panels and plants to block or redirect wind. Remember that corner units tend to be windier than balconies in the middle of your building facade. Mitigating the effects of wind and sun is an art and a science, but it’s possible to create a microclimate on your balcony or terrace that keeps your plants (and you and your guests!) at the optimum comfort level.
3. Picking the Right Plants
If you're going to flex your green thumb on your balcony or terrace, you'll have to choose plants based on more than just their looks. Even more so than planting in traditional garden beds, container gardening poses challenges to amateur gardeners, and the issues with exposure, temperature and wind speed listed above all affect your ability to grow beautiful flowers and foliage. When choosing seeds or specimens, pay careful attention to the plant hardiness zone, sun conditions and amount of watering they’ll need. Buying your plants and seeds at a reliable garden centre will allow you to rely on the expertise of the gardening staff. They will likely be able to tell you which plants will likely be successful on your balcony, and which to avoid. Also, they can make suggestions for substitute plants that will do better on your balcony.
Did You Know?
Plant hardiness zones are geographic bands that are divided by average annual minimum temperatures. Plant species are mapped to these zones to help gardeners pick plants most likely to survive in their climate.
While Toronto is Zone 5B and Vancouver is Zone 8B, with every 100 to 150 ft. your balcony rises above street level, your plant hardiness zone changes to one zone cooler. For example, if you live on the 27th floor of a condo in Toronto, your plant hardiness zone would change from 5B to 4B or possibly cooler depending on the orientation of your building and your proximity to the corner of the building and the prevailing winds.
4. Street Noise
Outside of wind and weather, there’s another potential problem that can impact your enjoyment of your space: traffic and pedestrian noise. This can be hard to judge when you're viewing the condo prior to buying it. Live in the space for a while and assess. Even in a high penthouse, street noise can ricochet off of other tall buildings on your street. You might find yourself eavesdropping on conversations happening several stories below your suite!
Don't make the mistake that others have of furnishing and decorating a relaxing outdoor space, only to find that the din on the street makes spending time in your new space impossible! Planning for ways to mitigate and block noise, including installing decorative panels that deflect street noise, or installing a white noise machine that will ensure that you can enjoy your space without needing to shout at your guests.
5. Privacy
As much as noise can be an interruption, prying eyes can also turn a beautifully renovated space into one you avoid like the plague. While you're noting wind and weather conditions, take a good look at your neighbour’s balconies and windows, and judge their proximity. Screening their view may be necessary.
Also consider that even if you don't mind them seeing you, your neighbours might not want to see the show you’re putting on each evening. If you intend to have large parties or use your balcony or terrace for any other activity that might be disruptive, privacy screens can make you a better neighbour to your fellow condo dwellers.
6. Finding the Best Views
After you've considered the less-than-ideal views into your neighbours’ balconies and living rooms, switch your attention to something more pleasant — your most picturesque views. You may get spectacular sunrises or sunsets, or you may overlook a lovely park or body of water. Perhaps you have a gorgeous cityscape that glows with twinkling lights at night? A great view is something to emphasise as you plan your new outdoor space, and you can highlight the best portions with movable panels on tracks, fabric screens or curtains, just like framing a beautiful painting.
Conversely, you may feel that your view is not the highlight of your outdoor space. You can cover a less-than-perfect view with screens, artworks or trellises that burst with colourful plants. Every view usually has some redeeming features, and the techniques noted here can also be used to frame the best slices of the view to trick the eye and cover the unsightly spots.
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Making your outdoor space the best it can be isn’t possible if you don't understand its physical constraints, or make the most of its good points. If you assess all the points mentioned above and find yourself disappointed with the space, don't despair — there are ways to mitigate the physical defects and create a beautiful and relaxing space that suits your needs, no matter what.
If you’re feeling daunted by the prospect of understanding all the qualities of your space, including how to pick the right plants and make the most of a small or awkward layout, our team can complete the assessment for you, plus draw up a plan that shows you how to best use the small space. Our Dreams, Needs and Options Assessment puts condo owners on the right track to creating a beautiful, enviable balcony or terrace. Simply contact us to get started on your assessment.