Patio Brick Designs: How to Use Our New Stone Pavers

Edging, pattern, texture, contrast. Find out how our new stone pavers give patio brick designs a fresh, contemporary feel.

The new range of stone pavers from London Stone gives you a fresh way to create interesting new patio designs. Their slim dimensions are designed to introduce greater movement and a modern feel into your paving.

The difference between stone setts and stone pavers

Our new patio brick range differs from traditional setts because the edges are machine sawn, as opposed to hand-cut, like the majority of our stone setts. This immediately gives stone pavers a sleeker, more linear feel that enhances modern patios. The pavers are then lightly tumbled. The tumbling process serves three purposes: it minimizes the likelihood of the paving edges chipping, prevents injuries from sharp edges by ensuring they are safe to walk on, and imparts a refined, smooth, tumbled appearance to the paver edge. For a comparison, take a look at two of the options in one of the most popular Indian sandstones: Raj Green sandstone setts and Raj Green stone pavers (pictured above)—both charming, each giving a patio or path a very different feel.

The dimensions are also deliberately very different. Half the width of our granite and sandstone setts, our stone pavers have a slim profile measuring 200x50x40. This long, narrow shape is ideal for crisp patterns with plenty of movement.

Design features using patio bricks

Here are a few ways to use our new range in patio brick designs. Use them to add unique touches to your outdoor space, making it entirely yours.

• Edging – create a border to frame matching or contrasting paving in patios and paths.
• Detailing – lay stone pavers as squares, rectangles or lozenge shapes within a patio laid with larger slabs to create a unique brick paver design.
• Texture – steps and risers are given interesting texture, emphasising the transition between levels, when constructed of stone pavers.
• Contrast – slim, linear patio bricks add an intimate feel to a dining area when contrasted with much larger patio slabs elsewhere in the design.

Stone pavers for driveways

Clay pavers have long been a favourite material for driveways. With dimensions very similar to our Alpha and Kessel Garden clay paver ranges, our new patio bricks are also ideal. Robust and hard-wearing, they're very capable of resisting the wear and tear of driveway traffic.

For drives, some designers consider them to have an advantage. Clay pavers are usually laid on a flexible bed of sand, and are jointed with sand. When turning, car tyres exert a force on flexible laying which can result in movement - a herringbone laying pattern is firmly interlocked and will stand up to this force. Stone pavers are best laid with mortar. So, the number of paving patterns that can safely be chosen for driveways is extended. You could consider basket-weave, stack bond and running bond, or combinations of patterns to break up a large area.

Because driveways are areas of high use and more liable to staining from engine fluids, we always recommend darker colours, as they show the dirt less than lighter colours.

More patio brick design ideas

For more ideas of how to use our new range of stone pavers, take a look at designing with setts and browse our images of clay paver patios and paths. Natural stone patio bricks work well in all the ways you’d use setts and clay pavers but imbue designs with a fresh, contemporary feel.

Take a look at the colours and textures in our range of natural stone patio bricks.