I love good patio designs. A perfectly designed and constructed patio can turn your back or front yard into a beautiful outdoor living space. A patio offers more than a place to engage with nature, find yourself, or unwind from the stresses of modern life. You can also enjoy cooking and outdoor dining, hanging out with friends and family, and hosting anniversary and holiday parties and other events.
Of course, you want fully elevate your landscape and increase your property value, right? Otherwise, why do it?
With this in mind, choose a patio design, construction materials and other hardscape features that complement your home and your garden. This guide explores a cross-section of popular designs, budget-friendly and luxury materials and other landscape features that can help you create the perfect patio.
Design: Top Factors to Consider
Before you review outdoor patio designs, you need to consider all the ways you might use it; the amount of foot traffic it might experience; the shape and size of the space where you want your professional landscape contractor to install it; your project budget; local building and safety codes; your current and planned home and outdoor color and design choices; and personal preferences.
You also need to consider how the patio fits into the overall outdoor space. You might need walkways leading to and from it. You might want or already have hardscape and other features in place that you need to consider in terms of size, shape, design and color, such as an outdoor kitchen, a dining area with one or more dining tables, seating areas, a fire pit or barbecue, mosaics, built-in or string lights or a water feature like a fountain or pool.
Paul Tamate, our highly experienced landscape contractor, might recommend that you think about installing a level patio into the ground or a raised patio with steps. Both designs can help make a small space feel larger. He might also recommend placing a patio in a spot that gives you and others an unobstructed specific view and using focal points to direct interest to specific areas of the landscape.
Other important elements to think about include deciding whether you want to enclose the patio with one or more walls or other structures (i.e., rails, trellises or a pergola) or border it with edge materials or decorative objects. You need to consider the types and colors of materials that best match the landscape in a blended or contrasting way. Lastly, you should think about adding decorative hardscape and other objects that match your interests or tastes and can easily embed into the patio or install nearby.
One of our our favorite examples is this unique patio in Bernal Heights.
Construction: Common Patio Materials
Some home and property owners believe that an Asian-inspired landscape artist only uses natural materials during patio construction. An array of manmade materials also work well. Consider the following options when thinking about construction:
Flagstone Patios
You can choose flagstones (i.e., basalt, bluestone, granite, limestone, sandstone, slate, travertine and quartzite) in different shades of colors and geometric or rough-edged shapes. You can also use gravel to form the entire surface of the patio or a border for drainage or pathways leading to it.
See more of this landscaping project in Duboce Triangle
Wood Patios
Wood is a beautiful alternative to stone. It’s warm tones elevate your outdoor space, providing a delightful contrast between wood, grass, and stone. If your landscape has an incline or wide space, Tamate Landscaping can install multiple decks with stairs between each one, decks with a lower patio, or a single or multi-tiered raised patio with steps on all sides, respectively. We’re especially proud of this tiered backyard makeover in Ashbury Heights.
Concrete Patios
A concrete patio provides a smooth, uninterrupted patio flooring or prefabricated concrete pavers installed with any surface shape. You can choose one or more custom options, such as stamped designs or surface patterns, inlaid items and mixed tint options. If you choose a patio paver product, you can even order pavers that offer faux natural material finishes.
Other Prefabricated Shapes
You could also have a stunning patio of bricks or tiles. Although these shapes are traditionally made of a mix of natural materials like clay, stone and sand, companies now use a wide range of materials to create more durable products. The ability to form complex patterns (i.e., basket weave, half weave, herringbone, jack-on-jack, pinwheel and running bond) with eco-friendly bricks and tiles in various shapes, sizes and colors makes prefabricated shapes popular in landscape design.
Finding Inspiration: Perfect Patios Do Exist
Since 1987, Paul Tamate has successfully designed and installed many perfect patios in outdoor spaces. Use photos and videos on his Houzz and Instagram pages and the following examples for inspiration:
– 2760 34th Avenue, Modern Backyard with Travertine Pavers and Custom Built-In BBQ
– 1089 Clayton Street, Backyard Transformation, Stairs and Decks
– 226 Fairmont Street, Backyard Makeover with Redwood Deck and Lower Patio
– 2421 Franklin Street, Custom Waterfall and Limestone Patio
– 156 Parker Avenue, Laurel Heights, Basalt Patio
These designs offer insight into a few of the many ways you can successfully add a patio to a San Francisco Asian-inspired landscape. For assistance from one of the region’s top landscape designers and installers, contact Tamate Landscaping today.
