Types of Juliet Balcony

Which juliet balcony is right for you?

What is a juliet balcony?

At its most basic description, a juliet balcony can be defined as a shallow balcony, acting as a balustrade on an upper floor of a building. Juliet balconies can often also be called juliettes, balconettes or balconets. Most juliet balconies will guard the fall from height created by the inclusion of french doors, most commonly in domestic properties.

The name juliet balcony actually comes from the famous scene in Shakespeares Romeo & Juliet whereby Juliet is courted by Romeo on a stone built balcony in Verona, Italy. But a juliet balcony is a shallow balcony you say? Correct and peculiarly Juliet's balcony was actually one that could be stepped out onto, and does not fall into the category of what we now know to be, and define as a juliet balcony.

Types of juliet balcony

There are many, many different styles of juliet balcony available to the modern day consumer, thousands in fact and the possibilities are actually endless in terms of design. Juliet balconies do however tend to fall into a few simple categories that will help define each style :

Modern juliet balconies

The vast majority of modern juliet balconies, those that are more suited to the brand spankingly new, clean white rendered 'Grand Designs' style build with sharp clean lines and modern building techniques are those that include glass. Glass juliet balconies are increasingly popular for obvious reasons, they allow a view to the outside world whilst keeping the wind at bay when your french doors are wide open, a sense of bringing the outside in.

Its not only the use of glass that makes a juliet balcony modern, it is also how the glass is used. By far the two most popular glazed juliet balcony systems for modern applications are those that either include stainless steel supporting framework, or those that are completely frameless.

Stainless steel framed glass juliet balconies can also come in various designs but most will include a minimal amount of steelwork required to support the glass infill panel. DioMet's most simplistic design is our aptly named 'Modern Style Juliet Balcony' . Where a larger span is involved, a similar design can be adopted but by using further supporting posts in place of the stainless steel base rail, this design is known as our 'Elegance Juliet Balcony'

Those that wish to create a completely frameless juliet balcony, or a partly framed juliet balcony are a little more limited by choice but only because of the simplicity of design - when covering a door opening with simply one pane of glass, there is little more to it than that. Staying with the theme of incorporating stainless steel into the design, the most widely used frameless juliet balcony is one that is fixed using round stainless steel glazing clamps at each side of the balcony, either with or without a matching stainless steel handrail on the top.

DioMet have this frameless juliet balcony option, again aptly named as simply 'Modern Frameless Glass Juliet Balcony'. Now what if your doors are wider? Of course we have a solution for this too by way of our side fixed frameless balustrade systemwhereby the same design is used but fixings are used underneath the opening, allowing further support to the system for wide spans - as wide as you like.

Traditional juliet balconies

Ok so perhaps your building is more traditional and you want a juliet balcony to match right? of course you do. This is where the most wide range of juliet balconies can be found, often incorporating mild steel (wrought iron) to form a fully welded balcony system. The options here are very diverse from the most basic railing design to those including a little more detail to break up the balcony, to those much more elaborate and ornately decorative - see our 'Regency Juliet Balcony' for example

Being made from wrought iron as opposed to stainless steel opens up the potential for rust which is why these mild steel juliet balconies are available in different finishes. DioMet will always offer our base finish juliet balcony as hot dip galvanized which will keep the elements at bay for over 25 years. Juliet balconies are not always easy to access so when purchasing your juliet balcony always be mindful of those offering inferior finishes such as primer painted, or gloss finished, its worth spending the extra.

The balcony can be installed in its simple galvanized form and many do however this tends to be more of an industrial finish. The more popular option is to either save a little money and paint the balcony yourself with any suitable hammerite type paint, or for a more professional finish choose to have the balcony powdercoated. Powdercoated juliet balconies will not only look impressive but can come in virtually any colour you wish - match it to your windows for example. The application of the powdercoating will further extend the life of the juliet balcony for another 15 years without any maintenance - put those ladders away!

DioMet have a range of different traditional style metal juliet balconies, our online store allows the simple purchase of a range of different designs in the most common sizes however we also offer a design service, to work with our clients who have more specific designs or want something a little more unique to their personal taste - generally a mix and match between our current designs but we can also match most designs that are presented to us - find a picture of what you like and ask the question, we're sure to be able to help.

Traditional juliet balconies can also incorporate glass, although a modern building material, glass can create a great fusion of design when included in a powdercoated juliet balcony design. Maintaining a modest steelwork finish that blends sympathetically into the surrounding will be more attractive to a traditional home that the use of a modern stainless steel finish. The use of a hardwood handrail can also help soften the design as seen in our 'Hinkley Juliet Balcony'

Curved juliet balconies

Curved juliet balconies are generally an adaptation of a traditional style metal juliet balcony. The reason being twofold in that modern architecture does not tend to include curves but instead promotes clean straight lines and secondly that curving glass can be an extremely expensive process. Curved juliet balconies therefore most commonly appear as a railing design.

The advantage of a curved juliet balcony is not only the stand out aesthetics, offering a more 3-dimensional and eye catching product, but also that creating a curve in turn creates a space. The space gained from the use of a curved juliet balcony can be used practically to step out onto and clean your windows or allow the cat to have a sunbathe but also could be used for decorative purposes such as adding beautiful pot plants or creating one's own little herb garden.

DioMet offer two main designs of curved juliet balcony, our more simplistic 'Lincoln' design and our more ornate version the'Lancaster' . Each curved balcony design includes a mesh flooring that allows a step out depth of approximately 300mm. As always DioMet can adapt designs and incorporate many different design features as you wish, we are after all specialist architectural metalworkers and always happy to help customers create a beautiful juliet balcony for their home.