10 Patio Designs

By Steve Kelley

If you have plans to install a patio in the near future, you will want to consider several things. You will want to consider which type of patio design will best suit your yard based on your taste, slope of the yard, and most importantly, the amount of cutting you will need to do in order to install a particular design.

Some designs require more cuts to install than others do. For instance, I personally like the 90-degree Herringbone and the Venetian Parquet designs, but they require more cuts than some of the easier design patterns. The Basketweave and Stacked Bond designs are simple and can require no cutting if you lay out the area to the correct dimensions. To find the correct dimensions you simply divide the width and length you intended for the area by the width or length of the stone. This means that in order for there not to be any cuts you may need to go a couple of inches shorter or longer than the initial length and width that you had intended.

If you are hiring a professional contractor to install the patio for you, you will still want to consider the difficulty of the design you choose. Most contractors will charge extra for patio designs that involve more cutting. The more complex a patio design is, the more cuts it will require, and therefore more time will have to be devoted to creating the finished product. You want to ensure any contractor you hire to perform work within your yard has proper licenses and insurances to complete the project. Depending on how handy you are with home projects you may want to consider a professional contractor to complete the patio.

The Basketweave is one of the simplest design patterns with no cuts involved. For this pattern you can use any rectangular shaped pavers. The most popular sizes are 4"x 8" pavers, 6"x 9" cobble stone, 6"x 12" pavers. You have to use only one size stone.

Basketweave

Stacked Bond

The Stacked Bond is another simple design pattern with no cuts involved. For this pattern you can use 4"x 8" pavers, 6"x 6" and 6"x 9" cobble stone, 6"x 6" and 12"x 12" pavers. You have to use only one size stone.

Running Bond

The Running Bond is simple to do, but you will need to make some cuts on both ends of the area. For this pattern you can use 4"x 8", 6"x 6", 6"x12",12"x 12" pavers, 6"x 6" and 6"x 9" cobble stone. You have to use only one size stone.

Random

The Random pattern is another easy pattern to do, but will require some cuts. For this pattern you will typically use pallets that come with different size pavers on them. Multiple sizes is the name of the game in this pattern.

Circles

Circles are easy to do, but they will require cuts on every side. For this pattern you will use a specialty pallet of blocks specifically made for putting in circles.

90 Degree Herringbone

The 90 Degree Herringbone is a little more complex and will require a few cuts on all sides of the patio. For this pattern you can use almost any rectangular paver. The most common is 4"x 8", 6"x 9", 6"x 12" pavers or 6"x 9" cobble stone. You have to use only one size stone.

45 Degree Herringbone

The 45-Degree Herringbone is similar to the 90-Degree Herringbone. The only difference is the pattern is layed at a different angle. This pattern will require a lot of cuts to be made on all sides of the patio. You can use almost any size rectangular paver. The most common is 4"x 8", 6"x 9", 6"x 12" pavers or 6"x 9" cobble stone. You have to use only one size stone.

Fans

Fans are one of the most complex and will require cuts on all sides of the patio. In order to create the fans you will use circle pallets to complete the pattern.

Diamond Run

The Diamond Run pattern is actually pretty simple once you get the pattern down. It does requires cuts on all sides of the patio. For this patio you will use the Symetry Stone to complete the pattern.

Venetian Parquet

The Venetian Parquet is one of the most complex patterns to lay out and will require cuts on all sides of the patio. For this pattern you will use 83% Symetry Stone and 17% Symetry Squares. To create a more visually appealing look, many people choose to order the Symetry Stone in one color and the Symetry Squares in a complementing color.