Balcony Bar And Terrace – Gul

Finally, after walking through the living room and master bedroom, we’ll end our tour of  ‘Gul’ today with a peek at the balcony bar and terrace.

The Plan

You’ve already seen the beautiful living room which is open on two sides. On one side we have a long, narrow balcony, while the other opens onto a large terrace. We decided to use both these in different ways instead of duplicating them.

The terrace is large enough to fit in comfortable seating and makes a great spot for the family to hang out with each other or a group of friends.

The narrow balcony made the perfect spot to fit in a bar counter with a great view of the open skies and the city beyond.

The Balcony Bar

Though this balcony is very narrow, it has a beautiful view of the city. The sky, with its changing colours as the sun sets, makes a stunning vision every evening. We wanted to give seating here to be able to enjoy this panorama.

Since we were providing lower, larger seating in the terrace, we thought taller, narrower seats would be a better fit here. Though both the terrace and this balcony are along the same wall, overlooking the same part of the city, using different seating in both areas gives a completely different view from both spots.

We placed a slender bar counter here, which we clamped on to the existing railing for additional support. Sitting at this counter gives an on-edge, bird’s eye view of the city. Watching the twinkling lights come on below as the sun sets is simply awesome. Given how narrow the balcony is, the bar counter is also a great fit here in terms of size.

The green wall works here in the exact same way. We barely have any floor space in this balcony. The vertical garden adds lush greenery to this corner without taking up any floor space.

The Terrace

Just round the corner from the balcony is the magnificent terrace. It is as wide and spacious as the balcony is narrow and cramped. It was love at first sight when I walked on to this garden in the sky and saw a full sized tree growing from it.

This terrace was already beautiful, and we had to do very little to make it stunning. We cleaned out the weeds and put in lots of flowering plants in the flower beds. Regular watering gave new life to the tree and we saw the leaves turn fresh shades of green over a few weeks.

The tiny patch near the service entrance is being used as a vegetable patch. The clients are loving the fresh herbs coming into their kitchen from their own garden.

We added outdoor wicker furniture to provide comfortable seating.

Since this terrace’s ceiling is three floors above it, we couldn’t hang ceiling lights here. We used soft, indirect lighting by putting uplighters in the plants and below the tree, and hung string lights for overhead lighting.

On the day of our photoshoot, we lost electricity for a few hours, and realised that the terrace looks magical in candle light too.

Before and Afters

Here are a few before and after pics to make the transformation come to life.

The long, narrow balcony..

To which we added the long, narrow bar counter with bar stools. The vertical garden makes this balcony bar come alive.

The terrace, as you enter it.

Required only some cleaning up, fresh planting and comfortable furniture to make it everyone’s fave spot for Sunday breakfast and evening tea.

A view of the terrace from the opposite side

I love the pretty, whimsical vibe that the string lights add to the terrace. They also provide light!

I also love how we carried the blues outdoors from the living room (or was it the other way around?) so the spaces flow into one another seamlessly.

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If you go through all the spaces of ‘Gul’ once again, you’ll be able to see how we’ve built on our theme of ‘nature’ and ‘flowers’ and spread that vibe gently across the entire home. Once you are inside this home, you can easily forget that you are part of a concrete jungle. It’s easy to imagine yourself in a green oasis with lots of bright sunlight, a cool breeze and the freshness of nature all around. These are my favourite elements of this makeover.

With this post, we wrap up another project… and look forward to bringing you our next very soon! Sign up here for regular updates.

Until next time,

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Photography: Biju Gopal of @bizou.photos