A modern balcony aesthetic involves clean lines, functional pieces, and usually monochrome color palettes. It revolves around minimalism, meaning you shouldn’t clutter your space too much with decorations and patterns.
Below are some tips on modern balcony ideas to help you create this style. Modern interior design is fairly easy to achieve because it’s pretty popular. Better yet, you can overlap it with other interior design styles.
6 Modern Balcony Ideas
1. Simple Furniture
Modern balcony furniture should be simple, functional, and without any loud patterns. You can choose from natural materials (wood and leather), metal and glass. Chrome is particularly popular, as are glass tabletops.
For modern balcony furniture, look for simple colors (black and white are popular) and clean lines. Luckily, plenty of outdoor furniture fits this brief.
2. Monochrome Colors
Monochrome typically means black and white, but in interior design, it often means a single color in multiple shades. That said, for a modern balcony, you’ll want to stick with basic colors. Neutrals are popular, but you could throw in a pop of primary color. If you do this, make sure it’s an accent rather than the main shade.
3. Modernist Garden
Unsurprisingly, there are go-to plants for a modern balcony garden. These choices come from the main modernism style points, so you’ll want plants that aren’t too “frilly” or bright.
Some good choices are:
- Sago palms
- Grasses
- Bamboo
- Ferns
Stay away from things that flower, as the green from your modern balcony garden will be enough. Stick with clean, functional pots in modern colors, too.
4. Modern Railings
A modern balcony railing should ideally be glass or box metal. If you can’t switch out your current railing, consider painting it instead. A modern balcony railing would look best in black, or white if you’re feeling riskier.
5. Natural Materials
Modern furniture came about as mass production took off, so it avoids the handmade look of older pieces. Even so, designers still favored natural materials, and this continues with current modern furniture.
For a modern balcony, your main choices should be wood, leather, and metal. Ideally, wood should be unpainted, and leather should be close to its natural color (browns and blacks are fine). Metal should be high-shine or painted black.
6. Avoid Clutter
Modern interior design favors minimalism, meaning an overall lack of decoration. You can still include rugs, cushions, and other pieces, but just make sure they don’t dominate the space.
Importantly, you should have floor space and room on your tables. Adapt Coco Chanel’s advice: decorate the space and then remove one thing. Your modern balcony should feel clean and functional without being overwhelming.
For lighting, stay away from things like pendant lights and string lights. It should still be functional and clean, and natural lighting where possible.
Final Thoughts on Creating a Modern Balcony
Designing a modern balcony still requires thought, even though it’s easier than, say, a boho style balcony. If you find some good modern balcony furniture pieces, everything else should fall into place quite naturally.