If your “outdoor space” is a 3 metre by 1.2 metre concrete slab on the 11th floor, you already know the brief: small, light enough to move, heavy enough to stay put when the south-easter hits.
Apartment balconies in South Africa are a unique design challenge. You want the comfort of an outdoor seating area, the practicality of furniture you can clear off for cleaning, and the safety of pieces that won’t sail off a balcony in a Cape Town gale or a Joburg afternoon thunderstorm. Add coastal salt air in Sea Point, sustained UV in Pretoria summers, and limited storage indoors, and the wrong chair becomes a quarterly replacement.
This guide breaks down what to look for in balcony chairs for South African apartments, and the specific Chair Crazy models that hit the right balance of compact, durable, and stylish.
What makes a chair right for a small apartment balcony
A balcony isn’t a patio. The constraints are tighter, the weather hits harder, and there’s usually nowhere convenient to store anything bigger than a folding chair. A few criteria matter more here than they do for a ground-floor garden or a poolside lounge.
Footprint. A standard dining chair takes up roughly 0.25 to 0.35 square metres. On a 4 square metre balcony, two chairs and a small table can easily eat the entire usable floor. Look for compact silhouettes and chairs that tuck close to a wall or table.
Weight (and wind resistance). This is the tricky one. Very light chairs are easy to move and stack, but they become projectiles in high winds. Cape Town apartments above the third floor regularly see gusts that lift unsecured furniture. The sweet spot is a chair heavy enough to stay put in a typical wind day but light enough for one person to carry inside before a storm. Quality polypropylene (PP) chairs from European makers like Siesta Exclusive land in this range, roughly 4 to 6 kg per chair.
Material. Outdoor exposure on a high-rise balcony means full sun, possible salt spray (coastal apartments), and rain that hits harder than ground-level rain. Wood splits and silvers, steel rusts (especially in Sea Point, Mouille Point, Umhlanga), and cheap plastic goes brittle within one summer. UV-stabilised PP is the most forgiving choice.
Stackability or fold-flat design. Most apartment owners eventually want to clear the balcony for guests, for cleaning, or because the wind is too strong. Chairs that stack 4 or 5 high and slide into a cupboard or under a console table are far more practical than fixed-leg dining chairs.
Cleanability. Balcony chairs collect a surprising amount of grime: bird droppings, dust from construction sites, traffic film. A chair you can wipe down with soapy water in 30 seconds beats anything with fabric upholstery or fiddly joinery.
The best balcony chairs in South Africa for small apartments
Here are three Chair Crazy picks that consistently work for apartment balconies, with notes on where each one suits best.
Minx PP Chair: the compact all-rounder
The Minx PP Chair is the easy default for an apartment balcony. It’s a slim, contemporary moulded polypropylene chair with a sculpted backrest, weighs around 4 kg, and tucks into a tight footprint. It’s UV-stable so colour doesn’t fade through a Joburg summer, and it wipes down in seconds. Stack it 4 or 5 high into a cupboard when the balcony needs to clear for cleaning or when a southerly is forecast.
Minx PP Chair, slim, stackable, UV-stable, ideal for apartment balconies
Candy Chair: bright, lightweight, family-friendly
The Candy Chair brings colour and personality to a small space. It’s a one-piece polypropylene shell chair available in bright finishes that suit modern apartments and Airbnb listings looking for a photogenic balcony. It’s also a strong pick for families: durable enough for kids to use, light enough to move easily, and easy to wipe down after a juice spill. Pair two in a corner with a small bistro table for a balcony coffee spot.
Candy Chair, bright colour options, family-friendly, weather-resistant
Air Bar Stool: when the balcony has a counter or high ledge
Many modern SA apartments include a small breakfast counter that opens onto the balcony, or a raised parapet wall that doubles as a casual drinks ledge. The Air Bar Stool is the right answer for those layouts. It’s a stackable, lightweight, bar-height PP stool with an interlocking design that stacks cleanly when not in use. Two of these and a wall-mounted drop-leaf shelf turns a 1.5 metre wide balcony into a usable sundowner spot.
Air Bar Stool, stackable, bar height, suits balcony counters and ledges
Layout ideas for small apartment balconies
The same balcony can serve very different purposes depending on how you arrange the seating. Three layouts work consistently well for small SA apartments.
The morning coffee corner. One small bistro table against the wall with two Minx or Candy chairs angled toward the view. Total footprint: roughly 1 square metre. Best for couples in studio or one-bedroom apartments who use the balcony for breakfast and weekend reading.
The sundowner counter. Two Air Bar Stools tucked under a folding wall-mounted shelf or a slim counter. When the shelf folds down flat against the wall, the stools slide under it and the balcony reads as empty. Best for tall, narrow balconies where a standard dining setup feels cramped.
The flexible four-seater. Four Minx chairs stacked in two pairs in a corner, with a small folding round table stored against the wall. When guests come over, you set up in under a minute. When they leave, the balcony returns to clear floor for the dog or the laundry rack.
Wind safety: a serious note for high-rise apartment buyers
Apartment block balconies in Cape Town, Sea Point, Camps Bay, Umhlanga, and high-floor Joburg complexes experience wind speeds far higher than ground-level homes. Loose furniture has killed and injured people in SA when it’s gone over a balcony in high winds.
Two rules to apply religiously. First, do not buy furniture so light it can be lifted by a 60 km/h gust. Test it in the showroom by lifting one-handed. If it’s effortless, it’s too light for an exposed balcony. Second, when the SA Weather Service issues high-wind warnings (common in Cape Town’s spring and summer), bring the chairs inside or stack them against an interior wall. PP chairs that stack 4 to 5 high make this a 30-second task instead of a 10-minute one.
Avoid umbrellas on balconies entirely unless they are fixed to a heavy base bolted or secured to the floor. Free-standing umbrellas in apartment buildings are one of the most common causes of balcony-related insurance claims in South Africa.
Storage and off-season planning
Most SA apartments have at least one cupboard, a small entrance hall, or a passage corner where stacked chairs can live during the off-season or during storms. Plan storage before you buy. If you have nowhere to put four chairs, buy two chairs and accept that the balcony seats two. Crowding a balcony with furniture you can’t move is a quick path to a permanent dust trap.
For renters, lightweight stackable PP chairs travel well between apartments. They survive a move better than wood or steel, they’re cheap to replace if damaged, and they store flat enough to fit in any cupboard.
Ready to kit out your balcony?
Whether you’re furnishing a Sea Point one-bedroom, a Sandton high-rise, or a compact Stellenbosch student apartment, the right balcony chairs make a small space feel intentional rather than improvised. Chair Crazy stocks the full Siesta Exclusive PP range in Cape Town and Johannesburg, with nationwide delivery and trade pricing for property managers.
Visit us in person:
Cape Town: 176 Sir Lowry Road, Woodstock
Johannesburg: Unit 2, 64 Lechwe Street, Midrand
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