It’s very natural to want to leap into designing and building your new patio, as the sooner it’s done the sooner you can kick back and enjoy it, but a little preparation and planning really does go a long way. Let’s run through a few questions you should ask yourself before you start sketching out actual designs.
The most important question is a simple one: What do you plan to use your patio for? This will largely determine what size patio you should build, as well as influence whether you’ll add elements to your design such as benches, space for a particular type of patio furniture, etc. If you’re going to err on one side, make it bigger than you need, as you’d be surprised at how quickly a patio set and people can fill up what you thought would be a spacious patio for entertaining.
Next up is to ask yourself when you plan on most often using your patio. In the mornings when the sun is rising? In the evenings, when the sun is setting? Answers to these questions will help you decide the orientation of the patio so that you take into account the path of the sun, where natural shade will occur, if you need to incorporate shade structures into your plan, etc.
The last one is another easy one, basically just what sort of materials do you like. Patios are constructed from all sorts of materials including concrete, brick, stone, and slate, and come in a vast array of colors and designs. Some materials lend themselves better to certain designs than other, so you should decide on what materials you’d like to incorporate before you start designing your patio.
