Stamped Concrete Patio
The very first time we visited our little Rhode Island house 5 years ago with a real estate agent, I immediately fell in love with the shady, quiet back yard. I could just picture myself sitting there on warm summer night sipping on a delicious cocktail made by my darling husband. The only thing missing? A nice patio to sit on.
Until now!! We now have the most gorgeous stamped concrete patio in our backyard, and it's one of my favorite things about this house.
The first step to putting in a new patio was deciding how big we wanted it to be. Our yard is tiny. We didn't want to take up too much of it, but we wanted to make sure we had enough room for our dining set and our grill with a little room to spare. We ended up deciding that a 16x22 foot patio would be perfect.
Next was figuring out what material we wanted our patio made from. My parents recently had a blue stone patio put in behind their house, and it's gorgeous! It's a classic look and I thought it'd go great with our house. After doing some research though, we found it was out of our budget. We wanted something inexpensive, yet durable. We also didn't have time to construct our own patio.
We did a little more research online, and all roads pointed to stamped concrete. Concrete patios are budget friendly, very durable, and you can have virtually any look you dream of. Cobblestone, blue stone, brick - you name it, they can create it with stamped concrete.
We hired the Rhode Island company called Desire Concrete & Staining (I highly recommend them - we love the work they did.) They helped us decide on the finish and colors for our patio. We went with a very simple design - it looks like large, smooth stones were placed in our yard with a brick border. It doesn't look like concrete at all because they texture it so that it really looks like stone.
The stain is a brand called EZ-tique, and the colors are Padre Brown on the edges, and Arizona Buff in the middle with some Walnut color mixed into the sealer. We chose a matte finish for the patio which I am super happy with it.
The work only took about a week. How awesome is that? Within no-time, the patio was done and we could set it up for use. We moved in our patio furniture, added a nice outdoor rug, strung up some lights and added our outdoor bar & grill, and voila! The most beautiful, comfortable outdoor living space to enjoy those warm summer nights. I also added some awesome lanterns from Ikea that I just love.
If you are thinking about having a concrete patio installed at your house, I say GO FOR IT! We love our patio and are so glad we went with stamped concrete. It's the perfect budget-friendly option, and you can go with any style your little heart can dream of. Now... let's just hope this freezing weather goes away so I can get out there and enjoy that patio!!!
