At a cost of about $5 a square foot, a pea gravel patio is easy on the budget (especially if you open the 50-pound bags and rake the gravel yourself)—and can be a surprisingly elegant hardscape element in the garden.
Small, rounded stone pebbles feel good underfoot—and crunch satisfyingly when you walk on the forgiving surface. We've rounded up everything you need to know about pea gravel in Hardscaping 101: Pea Gravel.
If you're considering a pea gravel patio, here are nine of our favorite design ideas to steal:
Checkerboard Effect
Above: Garden Visit: At Home with Jeweler Kathleen Whitaker in LA.
Match pea gravel's color with larger pavers and mix them to make a pattern. Treat the pea gravel like grout and lay the pavers equidistant from each other on a grid to create a checkerboard effect.
Patio Annex
Above: Behind a Brooklyn townhouse, a simple pea gravel court extends the footprint of a small stone patio. Price tag? The garden rehab project cost under $50,000. For more, see Steal This Look: Midcentury Mod Townhouse Garden in Brooklyn.
Give a stone patio an irregular shape and allow pea gravel to bleed in to the edges to create an optical illusion that makes the seating area feel larger.
Widen Your Horizons
Above: Steal This Look: Modern Brooklyn Backyard on a Budget.
Make a long, narrow space feel wider by unifying all the elements with a pea gravel border.
Apply Circular Thinking
Above: Rehab Diary: A Garden Makeover for a Ranch-Style House.
Pea gravel's small size and shape makes it the ideal hardscaping material to create a non-linear patio. You can echo the shape of a central fountain or round pool by rimming it with a pea gravel patio.
A Magic Carpet
Above: Before and After: A Malibu Garden for Grey's Anatomy Star Patrick Dempsey.
Carpet an outdoor room in a luxurious layer of wall-to-wall pea gravel.
Weed Repellent
Above: Beneath a pea gravel patio in Northern California is a weed barrier. For more, see Every Garden Needs a Teepee.
Lay a layer of landscape cloth underneath pea gravel to prevent weeds from growing underfoot.
Take the Heat
Above: After retiring from Hermès, former hat designer Nicole de Vésian moved to Provence to embark on her most ambitious design project: a strange and hauntingly beautiful garden. For more, see Paradise in Provence: A Parisian Stylist at Home.
In a hot, sunny spot stick with light colored gravel to reflect the heat (darker colors will absorb heat).
Define a Destination
Above: For more, see Architect Visit: Barbara Chambers at Home in Mill Valley.
In a far corner of the garden, lay out a spot for a bench or lounge area, cover it with pea gravel, and surround it with a low hedge of evergreen shrubs to create a sense of greater depth even in a small space.
Rein in Rainwater
Above: Sited on a steep slope in an oak forest in California, a pea gravel patio by Feldman Architecture aids drainage and prevents runoff. For more, see Garden Envy: 10 Dramatic Drainage Ideas to Steal.
If runoff is a problem, lay a permeable pea gravel patio to filter rainwater.
For more patio design ideas, see:
- Low-Cost Luxury: 9 Ways to Use Decomposed Granite in a Landscape.
- Hardscaping 101: Design Guide for Patio Pavers.
- Garden Visit: 66 Square Feet (Plus) on a Harlem Terrace.
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