I painted my garage floor 40 years ago with paint for garage floors, it's held up but now formulas have changed so much don't know. However my Son just did some fancy concrete steps up to his house,rolled edges on 4 ft wide by 8 ft long steps & after they were completely dry he used a beautiful stain so they look like old walkway in Italy, he mosaic-ed the risers. He got idea off the web. Think he just looked under concrete staining. It is really beautiful so check it out. I'm sure it comes in a number of colors to go with the paint on your house. You would have to get the patio in before you do the staining. It is finished by a sealer I think. Son was so pleased that he planned to do a back patio the same way.

You can totally stain or etch them or what have you, but you can do a good design without doing that too. I've done a lot with that size of slab; I love them. The width is enough for a pathway to the patio you make, so there can be a seamless transition and a gradual arrival, and also, they can be cut (check at a local stoneyard/countertop place if you have one) diagonally to create angled edges.

You can also leave small gaps into which you plant a ground cover such as the little Ophiopogon grass, as you might with flagstone.

KarinL

Decide what size patio you need.

50 pavers is (7 x 7) +1 -- so an area about 14 - 14 1/2' square (depending how much space you leave between the pavers).

50 pavers can also be (6 x 8) +2 -- so about 12 - 12 1/2' by 16 - 16 1/2'.

If this amount of space isn't enough, you can buy a few more pavers or stepping stones at a building supply or home renovation store (take into consideration any needed walkways, as karinl mentioned). If your same pavers aren't still available, keep in mind that a good contrast is better than a bad match. (You could also use four 12" pavers instead of selected 23 1/2" pavers; I don't know how well that would work, though.)

You can have a different color border, or a design in the middle. For instance:

M O O O O O O M ..... O O O O O O O O ...... O O O O O O O O
O O O M M O O O .... O M M M M M M O ..... O O M O O M O O
O O M O O M O O ..... O M O O O O M O ..... O M M O O M M O
O M O O O O M O ..... O M O O O O M O ..... O O O M M O O O
O M O O O O M O ..... O M O O O O M O ..... O O O M M O O O
O O M O O M O O ..... O M O O O O M O ..... O M M O O M M O
O O O M M O O O .... O M M M M M M O ..... O O M O O M O O
M O O O O O O M ..... O O O O O O O O ...... O O O O O O O O

[On the left: 48 original pavers (2 left over) and 16 new pavers. The other two use 44 original pavers (6 left over) and 20 new.]

Here's how v1rtu0s1ty did it (begin at the back of the thread to find the paver design more easily).
http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/design/msg0802193616658.html?76

Make mock-ups of the designs you're considering. You can color on graph paper, or make your own graph paper in Microsoft Paint and fill in each square with a click of the mouse. (Paint is part of every Windows operating system; you'll find it under "Accessories" -- though it's been pointed out to me before that if you've never used Paint, it takes a while to learn.) Or take contrasting colors of construction paper, cut them into 1 or 2" squares, and lay them out on a tabletop. Or take two colors of 3x5 cards and cut them into squares.

50 almost 2'square pavers is only 200sf - not a very generous patio area. When designing patios (outdoor entertaining areas) I tend towards larger than you'll think you need -- small patios make you feel cramped and make it hard to place both the furniture/BBQ/accessories plus leave enough room to move about comfortably. And if this is an area that you want to accomodate patio furniture, you'll want to set the pavers as close together as possible. Nothing more annoying than a table leg sinking into the groundcover!!

So you might want to use the pavers instead for a paved seating area somewhere else in the garden and perhaps include some as pathway material as well. Or get more pavers :-)

And yes, you can stain concrete pavers. Those with a lot of rough surface - exposed aggregate - will only absorb the stain on the concrete portions. Also, you might want to make some of your own pavers (not a hard DIY project) that you decorate with tiles, shells, broken pottery or other found items. Intermixed with the standard pavers, these can add a lot of personalized character to the end result.

I am looking for exactly what you have! I'm having a hard time finding them. Where did you get yours? Home Depot has 16". They have 24", but with aggregate showing and I just want plain.

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