Give Your Patio a New Life

Are you tired of sitting out on the same old patio that you’ve had for years?  Is it too small, dingy, uninteresting, or impractical?  Utilize one or more of these patio renewal tips and bring it Back To Life!!

Are the pavers, concrete or stone looking dirty, uneven or falling apart?

• Pressure wash to remove dirt and stains, repair cracks in concrete, sweep silica sand in the joints or mortar joints and seal the pavers to give you patio a “new look”.
• For uneven pavers or stone, lift and re-level the base with crushed gravel or sand and re-lay.
• Replace broken or chipped pavers.

Is the patio area too small or uninteresting?

• Add an area for additional sitting, eating or cooking with the same material

of your existing patio or a different complimentary material.

• Edge the patio or add a border around the patio with brick, bluestone, or cobbles.
• Inset a different material inside your patio, like a brick “blanket” inside concrete.
• Add a pergola to create the feel of an indoor room and help shade the area.
• Add planting beds around the patio to create screening, giving it a sense of privacy.  Use pleasant smelling plants, a tree with a nice canopy for shade, or edible plants near outdoor kitchen areas.
• Install outdoor lighting to light up plantings and sitting areas, extending patio use to the evening hours.
• Add a seat wall for extra seating, creating a sense of space.  Columns to cap off the seat wall gives it an elegant look. (See Picture Above)

Is the patio impractical?  Make it more functional!

• Add furniture:  chairs with comfy pillows, tables with umbrellas and rugs to create a living space.  If your patio is big enough, establish more than one conversational area.
• Create an outdoor kitchen area.  This could be for a free-standing grill or a built in grill with counter tops.
• Add a fire pit, gas or natural, permanent or free standing, extending the use of the patio during cooler days.

To create a more exciting patio at this front entry, we inset a brick “blanket” inside the concrete.  A brick trimmed planter establishes an elegant  focal point.

Make your patio more functional by adding an outdoor kitchen area like the one we constructed here with concrete wall stone and bluestone countertops.  Matching concrete pavers are used for a landing area and a border around the concrete patio.

In this Whitefish Bay back yard, we created several living areas including this eating area furnished with a table, comfy chairs and an outdoor rug.

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Beautiful Stone Garden Walls

A beautiful stone wall can add a truly majestic element to your landscape.  The use of attractive, natural stone in a wall, whether mortared or dry laid, creates an architectural component with a timeless appeal.  Use a stone wall to enhance the architecture of your home, define space or create a theme for your landscape.

A mortared granite wall and column beautifies a driveway entrance and matches the masonry on the house.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stone Garden Wall Objectives 

• Frame an entryway, sidewalk or driveway, drawing your eye toward these areas or use as a focal point.
• Create a sense of space by placing the wall along a sitting area, courtyard or outdoor foyer.  
• Give a sense of privacy by installing a wall around patios and conversational areas.
• Construct seat walls, providing extra areas to sit and relax, or areas to place planters, garden art, lights, and refreshments.
• Create raised planters.
• Hold back soil, terracing yards to create usable space and planting areas.

Wall Materials and Additions

• There is an infinite selection of natural stone available, split, fractured, cut, tumbled and cobble, that give a variety of architectural effects.
• Add a column to the end of the wall to help anchor it.
• For a finished, elegant look, top the wall with a Bluestone or a Bedford limestone cap, or put a marque or address stone in the wall or column.
• Put landscape lighting on top of the wall column, or have an up light shining onto the wall.

This fractured Basalt wall creates a raised planting bed, giving the sitting area a sense of privacy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This mortared Lannon cobble wall and column with a Bluestone cap helps frame and focalize the entrance.

This dry laid Lannon stone wall with a Bedford limestone cap helps give the patio area a sense of privacy.