![]() ![]() (Maintenance consists of an occasional sweeping.) To keep the patio cool on warm days, we hang a shade sail overhead. It makes an inviting “rug” for garden furniture and holds up beautifully to heavy foot traffic. The finished patio ― which we built in a long weekend for about $250 ― established an outdoor room that has become our favorite spot for alfresco dining. To finish the patio, we put down more washed sand and swept it across the patio’s surface to fill in the cracks between pavers. We pounded them into place with a rubber mallet. We positioned the pavers, which I’d already stained and sealed, and then used a carpenter’s level to make sure each one would sit level on the sand. For our patio’s design, we copied the pattern of a 1950s tiled wall in the neighborhood it uses four colors in the 13- by 13-foot design.Īfter removing the lawn and about 3 inches of soil beneath it (the 2-inch-deep pavers needed to sit flush against an adjacent driveway), we framed the patio with 2-by-4s and put down a 1-inch-thick layer of washed sand. Unlike paints made specifically for concrete, this mixture lets you choose your own color palette. After a few experiments, I developed a simple recipe that would allow me to stain the pavers with custom colors (see Project Tips on page 2). Then my experience as a scenery artist led me to the idea of turning the raw 12-inch-square pavers into a colorful mosaic. My husband, Oliver Kreidemann, and I kept saying, “If only they came in better colors.” But we didn’t want to commit to anything too permanent or expensive since we were rethinking the design of our house.Ĭoncrete pavers seemed to be the answer ― they are readily available and inexpensive (less than $1 each) at home improvement stores ― but their color range is limited to gray and ruddy brown. We needed a level, durable patio that would blend with the surrounding garden. And our dog, Stella, regularly tracked grass and mud into the house. And it solved a major, if temporary, problem.īecause the back entrance of our house leads to a home office, lots of foot traffic had trampled the lawn. An outdoor “area rug” of stained concrete pavers replaced a tired lawn in the back of our 1930s bungalow in Santa Monica. ![]()
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