The title image features Thornbury pavers.
It’s exciting to think about a new outdoor living space that you and your family and friends will enjoy using this summer. If you’re wondering how to create a patio space you’ll love, here are three landscape design tips for merging new paver surfaces with the surrounding softscape in Dover, NJ.
Related Read: How to Choose the Right Color for Your Pavers and Walls
Choose Materials That Look Native
If you’d like to create as natural a setting as possible in your backyard and you love the modern look of a sleek, monochromatic paver, both ideals can be incorporated with the right landscape design. As you look over your paver choices, take color and texture cues from nature, and choose pavers with a sleek design and a natural look.
Umbriano by Unilock is a versatile paver with color choices perfect for a modern setting. Umbriano pavers are available in a warm Autumn Sunset, a neutral French Grey, a dramatic Midnight Sky, a bright and cheerful Summer Wheat, and a cool, granite-like Winter Marvel. Umbriano pavers are all unique, thanks to randomly dispersed granite particles and saturated color: this variegated look creates an interesting paver with a modern flair, featuring colors and light qualities that you’d find in nature.
Use Blended Color
All Unilock pavers feature what can be called “earthy” colors—but what’s most important is to complement the colors in your unique softscape. For example, a home situated in a wooded area with exposed blue-gray stone may pair best with grayish or gray/brown pavers, but you may view same pavers as having a cold appearance in a sunny landscape filled with colorful flowers.
One innovative way to visually incorporate your patio into the surrounding softscape is to blend colors on site. Purchase two or three colors that look good together, and randomly blend them on site.
A wonderful paver with eight warm, earthy color choices is Beacon Hill Flagstone from Unilock. This paver is inspired by natural flagstone and features blended colors and realistic textures. It would give your outdoor space a relaxed look and feel. You may especially love how this paver looks in the golden light of late afternoon, as the sunlight creates dramatic shadows and accentuates the rich colors. Beacon Hill Flagstone pavers are available in Almond Grove, Fossil, New York Blend, Sierra, Steel Mountain, and Tuscany.
To achieve a natural blended look, you could pair Almond Grove and Fossil or choose a three-way blend.
When choosing colors, keep in mind that pavers become darker when wet, and the colors become more saturated. To avoid choosing a paver that darkens more than you like—or if the colors become too vivid—you could look into taking home samples of all the colors you like, especially if you want to blend several. Then you could see them in the space you want to use them, wet and dry, and in all lighting conditions.
Spread It Out
Many modern designs feature a transitional area between the patio and the softscape. You can achieve this effect by using extra large square or rectangular pavers and separating them by strips of grass, or pebbles, or for a dramatic effect, sea glass. Skyline pavers from Unilock are available in Medium Grey or Desert. These subtly pebbled, non-slip pavers are a substantial 24” square, which makes them perfect for a stepping-stone transition.
Visit the Unilock Dream page for design ideas and inspiration, and see real examples of your favorite pavers in their “natural habitat.”
