What Makes Patio Pavers Timeless in Harrisburg, PA?

June 28, 2020 Stephanie D

Investing in your hardscape means making a long-term commitment to a particular paver or selection of pavers. You’ll be looking at the same materials day after day for many years, so it’s important to choose materials that stand the test of time. To avoid a dated patio, here’s a helpful guide to what makes patio pavers timeless in Harrisburg, PA.

Today’s trends are tomorrow’s avocado green and harvest gold. If you look at places around the world that are truly timeless and elegant, most of them don’t look dated. Instead, they look classic. What makes them classic?

Craftsmanship

Choose pavers that are made to the highest standards. Nothing says “dated” faster than crumbling and chipped surfaces.

Colors

Stick to neutrals that will still look great if you change the color of your roof or siding. Avoid pavers in very warm or very cool tones, as this will limit your choices of roof or siding colors (which are more often replaced than hardscapes). How can you tell if a paver is neutral in tone? Put something blue and something yellow next to it, when the paver is dry and when the paver is wet (moisture tends to enhance colors). The paver should look good next to the blue object as well as the yellow one.

Textures

Natural stone and concrete pavers both come in a huge variety of textures, from sandblasted, smoothed, or brushed. For a more relaxed and natural feel that will help integrate the outdoor living space into your environment, choose more texture. For a sleek modern feel, opt for smoother textures unless you want to create contrast with other smooth materials. In general, don’t go overboard with trendy textures as you may tire of it.

Now, let’s move on to some patio materials that will never go out of style.

1. Brick

Used for thousands of years worldwide, clay brick is the original manufactured building material. The traditional look of “brick red” can look surprisingly good with many architectural styles (and it’s a timeless look) but if you’ve seen bricks in a yellowish-tan hue, those can be much harder to match with any other paver materials or siding that isn’t in the warm category. Yellowish-tan bricks were once fashionable, but they just don’t have the staying power of red brick.

Today, you can get creative with brick colors thanks to concrete pavers. Traditional clay bricks are limited to the color of the clay used in their manufacturing. But with modern concrete pavers, you get additional color choices including steel blue, dark charcoal, and even cool blended colors that look great in nearly any setting.

2. The Look of Stone

The world’s oldest building material is natural stone. Granite, flagstone, bluestone, sandstone, and limestone are favorites for creating outdoor living spaces. None of these will ever go out of style. You can get the look of natural stone with today’s modern manufactured stone (concrete) options. This will expand your design choices, including expanded finish, texture, and color options.

However, shape can go out of style. Natural fieldstone (that hasn’t been cut and shaped) is great for rustic patios but looks decidedly too casual next to more upscale or elegant homes. If you love the color and texture of flagstone, go for it—but choose square and rectangular flagstone instead. This will give you more design options. It’s also significantly easier to lay a patio using cut stone, rather than trying to puzzle together uncut flagstone! There are also concrete paver options that look just like natural flagstone.

Image Source: Unilock