Minimalist Balcony Railings Come in Many Styles

Minimalism, when applied to railings, is about keeping things as open as possible. In the U.S., the maximum spacing allowed between railings is four inches. This is intended to prevent people (typically children) from falling or putting their heads between the balusters. This regulation means that achieving a minimalist railing requires the balusters themselves to be very narrow or see-through. There are a few different materials that fit these criteria.

• Cable railings fall under the narrow baluster category. With this type of railing system, stainless steel cables are stretched either vertically between the top and bottom rails, or horizontally between the posts or vertical framing elements.
• Glass railings undoubtedly open up the view from your balcony since they are transparent. Styles of glass railing vary, but glass panels are usually either suspended in a frame or bolted onto minimal supports between panels.
• Mesh railings are a blend of the narrow and see-through approaches to railings. These railings are usually repurposed fencing like chain link with the top rail of the fence acting as the handrail and the chain link serving to keep anyone from falling through. These also come in an expanded metal form. However, these typically are found lacking as an appealing residential option.
• Pipe railings are railings built of round piping. Like mesh railings, these usually use materials repurposed from their original intent. Usually, these take the form of a piping frame with multiple pipes running horizontally, acting as balusters. Like with mesh railing, these railings style can seem more industrial than minimalist.

Of course, this list is not the end-all-be-all in terms of minimalist railing options. As a style, minimalism is highly subjective. For instance, some might consider simple steel railings to be minimalist, although I think these make better farmhouse porch railings. There are also exotic custom options like railings that dispense with the handrails completely and simply have balusters or mesh running from the floor to the ceiling.

Another thing to keep in mind is that minimalist railings are considered minimalist because there is a minimal amount of material used. Less material generally means a better (less restricted) view, but it also means that more engineering has to go into keeping the railing—and whoever leans against it—upright. This can make these types of railings trickier to install, because when redundancies are removed, tolerances tighten, and something as small as using the wrong type of screw can cause a failure down the road. If you are commissioning something custom, you’ll want to pay for that system to be designed in a structurally sound way and installed correctly. Fortunately, there are easy-to-install minimalist railing systems that come with all the engineering already done.

Installing Minimalist Balcony Railings to Open up Your Home

With their transparency, glass railings are the most minimal of the minimalist railing designs, especially in the full glass panel version. These systems come in a variety of types. Glass panels are sometimes suspended between narrow posts or mounts with only a few points of contact and with no handrail, per se. This is the sort of system where installation can get tricky. There needs to be absolutely no movement around the points where the pane is anchored, so the bolts are usually sealed with some sort of gasket and with silicone caulk to prevent movement and to keep water from getting in. Because of the complexity of mounting these systems, professional installation is generally required. Alternatively, homeowners can opt for a glass railing style in which the glass panels slide into a simple metal frame. This design makes it possible to take a DIY approach to installing glass railings.

Cable railings may be more visible than glass railings, but they are also more versatile and can be installed with a variety of post materials, from wood to metal to composites. The design of a cable railing is relatively simple. You first install tensioners into the frame and then pull the wires taught. However, installing the tensioners to the frame can be complicated when you’re building the railings from scratch. In this case, the railing’s cables must be parallel with each other, and they have to be plumb (when installed vertically) or level (when installed horizontally). When you’re starting from scratch, this requires measuring and leveling holes in every post or rail with no more than a four inch spacing between them. For a DIYer, this can get challenging and overwhelming, and even for an experienced crew, this is a lot of work. An easier solution is to go with a pre-assembled cable railing system in which the cables are already strung onto a frame, which can then be mounted to any type of post you’d like.

The more industrial versions of the minimalist look, such as mesh and pipe railings, are harder to speak definitively about since there's so much variety in how these can be installed. Simple chain link fence versions are just chain link fencing stretched between pipes and anchored using fittings. Expanded metal versions are usually a metal lattice either bolted or welded onto square tube stock and aren't that much different from a standard steel railing. In my opinion, the most elegant minimalist options, if you aren't looking to have something custom designed for you, are cable and glass--particularly well-engineered, pre-assembled systems that aren't complicated to set up.

Over the years, I've figured out that minimalism isn't always about austerity. When you search minimalist homes in your search engine of choice and look at the images that pop up, you'll see a lot of rectangular box-shaped homes and rooms in white and neutral colors. These sorts of homes are not for everyone, and can sometimes be architectural showpieces more than homes meant to be lived in. It's important to remember that minimalism is about the dialogue between you, your home, and its surroundings, and a touch of minimalism--say, on a balcony or deck railing--can add elegance to a home, even if that home isn't the perfect example of minimalist living.

There are lots of glass and cable railing systems available that lend themselves to the minimalist look. A lot of these, I’ve found, can be complicated to order (glass systems often require you to measure your deck or balcony in order to have the panels custom cut, for example) and can also be quite difficult to install. Pure View™ glass railing and cable railing systems from Fortress Building Products both have a unique design that makes them easy to install, and are also designed to be tough against whatever the elements--or your family--can dish out. Fortress Building Products, also makes other tough products, like elegant composite decking to go with your new minimalist railings.