Take-Home Natural Stone Patio Ideas from RHS Shows

Be inspired: award-winning natural stone patio ideas at RHS flower shows around the UK.

Natural stone paving for modern stone patios

It's been around for millennia; natural stone paving never goes out of fashion. Riven stone has a relaxed for that's ideal for older and rustic settings. Sawn natural stone offers the sleek looks and finely cut edges so important to modern gardens. What so many designers love, though, is that no paving slab is exactly the same. It’s these—sometimes very subtle—variations in tone and markings that add warmth to paving schemes, without losing modernity.  

Natural stone also has the advantage of being cut from quarried stone. This gives a flexibility over size and shape. And that means you can incorporate special touches like the ones we explore below.

Designers' favourite natural paving

If there's a favourite designer paving, it might just be Jura limestone. This appears time and again in award-winning gardens.

A superb example of its refined character is seen in the LG Eco-City Garden, designed by Hay-Joung Hwang (pictured at the top of the page). In a rectilinear layout that balances symmetry with asymmetry, the sawn Jura’s pale, consistent colouring helps emphasise the lines with a crisp finish.

Jura limestone makes a superb patio paving. Available in beige and grey as standard, its surface is enlivened by tiny fossils and markings which speak of its age and give it a distinct character. It can, however, be beyond the budget of some projects. All is not lost. Check out our exclusive porcelain paving, made to emulate Jura Limestone Porcelain to create the designer look. Its looks are genuinely difficult to distinguish from the real thing.

Hay-Joung's design also includes outsize, 75mm-thick Jura plank paving creating a bridge across the pool. Plank paving particularly suits modern design, but you don’t have to commission bespoke paving to enjoy it.

Natural stone plank paving in award-winning design

In her Crest Nicholson LIVEWELL garden, Aleksandra Bartczak chose black granite planks to contrast with the surrounding resin-bound gravel.

Combining contrasting paving to draw attention to a particular area is a design trick that allows you to zone your patio, while adding texture and colour interest. Find out more about designing with plank paving and combining different colour pavings.

Plank paving is readily available in a selection of granite and sandstone.

Budget-friendly natural stone paving

In her HUG (Healing Urban Garden), Rae Wilkinson showed us that budget paving is every bit as able to create the designer look. Kota Blue limestone is a favourite with anyone seeking a blue tint. Rae used it to advantage, pairing it with white gravel to create a cool oasis. Find more patio ideas for Kota Blue limestone.

Or how about going darker? Charlie Bloom's budget-friendly Colour Box used Midnight Black limestone sealed with colour-enhancer to make the most of its rich tones.

And if you're looking for a comparable alternative to the very expensive, but very lovely, Jura limestones from Germany, see Egyptian Beige limestone garden designs, which show how this more economical alternative can step into their place.

Dark-coloured natural stone paving

Deep black slate made Charlie's colourful planting all the more vibrant. Dark granite and slate are two other options for adding deep drama to natural stone patios.

Granite lends itself to contemporary lines, and Rosemary Coldstream enhanced an already dark colour with Intensifia sealant to create an ultra-modern feel in The Best of Both Worlds.

Dark paving also contrasts well with lighter materials, as you can see by checking out Robert Barker’s Skin Deep Garden at Chelsea 2018. It’s an unusual choice which can add real personality to your garden.

To help you decide if deep colour is right for you, read our Dark Paving – Pros and Cons.

Oversized slabs

One oversized slab can create great design impact. Choose it to match your chosen paving and the effect will be to draw attention to the character of all the stone selected. Jo Thompson’s The Wedgwood Garden goes one further and isolates it in the pond - an extra-large slab of Jura Beige inviting visitors to cross the pool for a closer look.

Will Williams uses a thick block, raised on a hidden paving slab, to create a fire table in his Viking Friluftsliv Garden. It’s not just the size but the clean, simple lines that give the stone a starring role.

Natural stone panels

But natural stone doesn’t have to be horizontal. In his Viking Cruises Lagom garden, Will Williams punctuated his boundary hedge with large panels of Jura Grey limestone, creating a monolithic feel that contrasts with the beech hedging. 

On a smaller scale, designer Anca Panait chose Yorkstone for her The Entertaining Garden. The bespoke plank paving matches the asymmetrical panel on the front of the garden bar. Using the same paving material for upright features is an ideal way to unite vertical and horizontal planes.

Engraved for effect

A truly personal touch to any garden is an engraving. Often an upright panel invites an image, as seen in Kristian Reay's Phytosanctuary Garden. Our Bespoke Stone Centre engraved the Harvest sawn sandstone panels with a design that echoed the message of the garden by representing the cell of the Xylella bacterium.

However, even a small engraving on a paving slab injects a intimate feel - perhaps an important date or meaningful saying - as Rhiannon Williams did with the unobtrusive engraving at the entrance to her John King Brain Tumour Foundation Garden.

Find another engraved feature in Tom Massey and John Ward's UNHCR Border Control garden.

Matching natural stone coping and steps

Finally, a design element hat makes a huge difference is strength of line. One of the simplest ways to create this is with coping, especially as natural stone offers a 40mm thickness that gives a line considerable substance.

Naomi Ferrett-Cohen’s NHS Tribute Garden at Chelsea 2021 is a great example is the strong, sinuous line created by the coping, which uses the creamy colouring of Buff Yorkstone. Here it doubles as seating.

In his Suffolk Retreat for the Pro-Corda Trust at Chelsea 2016, Frederic Whyte paired step treads and coping in Harvest Sawn Sandstone in a way that encourages the eye to zig-zag across the garden. The continuous line is emphasised by the contrast between the treads and the clay pavers of the steps. It’s a cunning design trick that’s easy to incorporate into a raised garden patio.

Find more patio ideas inspired by award-winning gardens. At London Stone we're always ready to discuss how to make your ideas come to live. Contact us for more information, visit one of our showrooms nationwide.

Post updated: April 2024