If you are thinking of revamping your garden, you will almost certainly want to include a patio area. You know you don’t just want the usual rectangle of paving slabs just outside the back door, but how do you go about planning something unique?
First ask yourself the following questions:
Does it have to be big enough for a table and 6 chairs, or smaller for a bench or a bistro table? Do you want to fit some sun loungers on there too?
By the house is ideal if you do lots of outdoor entertaining, but if you want to catch the sun then work out which part of the garden is in the sun for longest and site it there. Maybe you need two paved areas – one for morning sun and one for evening sun?
Now you can start making some design decisions.
It doesn’t have to be a rectangle. How about making an ‘L’ shape, perhaps with a section that is more sheltered and an area to catch the sun? Or turn the whole thing at an angle of 45 degrees to your house – instantly much more interesting!
A curved edge can look stunning too, but keep it simple.
Now you can really get creative! Use more than one paving material – for example Tobermore Old Court Flags in Harvest Gold with a border round the edge of Tobermore Tegula setts in a contrasting colour like Charcoal.
Bring the border away from the edges of the patio to make an intimate space. You could lay the flags in the middle at 45 degrees to enhance the effect.
You can break up a large expanse by replacing occasional paving slabs with a series of smaller blocks, or set the patio out as two interlocking rectangles and use different paving materials for each – perhaps using Tobermore Retro blocks for one area and Tobermore Pietra Sandstone Flags edged with Retro blocks for the other.
There are enough combinations of paving materials and ways of laying them to mean that no two patios have to be identical!