2 Outdoor Design Ideas for a Cozy Brick Patio in Naperville and Hinsdale, IL Areas
There are few outdoor spaces more charming than those that use brick. If spending a lot of extra time on your patio in 2020 made you aware of its shortcomings, now is the perfect time to plan ahead for the coming outdoor season and design a patio you’ll be thrilled to use every day. Here are 2 outdoor design ideas for a cozy brick patio in Naperville and Hinsdale, IL, areas.
1. Fire and Food
Give people a reason to go outside, even once the summer is over. Let’s start by creating a focal point where everyone will gather year ‘round: an outdoor fireplace!
In a smaller space, a fireplace is preferable to a fire pit; only because a fire pit needs to be located more or less centrally to make for easy traffic flow - and this can make the space feel choppy and awkward. By contrast, an outdoor fireplace can be positioned in a corner of the patio, to create a more intimate experience that’s outside of the flow of traffic.
The fireplace is its own entity, and building it with brick could result in too much brick in the space, making it feel visually cramped. If you like, you can use brick accents on its face, but use a complementary material whether it’s natural stone, poured concrete, or manufactured stone (concrete veneers).
Add a wood-fired pizza oven to your fireplace, and you’ve just created “the” place to be, in virtually any season!
If you enjoy grilling, positioning the grill in relative proximity to the fireplace will create a hub of outdoor living. This means the rest of your patio could be assigned to more relaxed activities, such as relaxing with a good book.
2. Separate Zones
A patio is generally thought of as a single space with different activity zones. This is one approach, but it’s not the only one.
Mini-patios could be the answer to creating intimacy in a large backyard.
Depending on the layout of your backyard, you could also create a series of smaller, interconnected yet separate patios. This works especially well if you have a sloped backyard but thoughtful use of plantings and other physical barriers can create outdoor rooms, much like indoor rooms are separated by walls in your home.
Each of these mini-patios could be paved with the same brick, but the laying patterns could be different; the patios could be tied together with a series of brick walkways laid in a consistent pattern.
If you want to stick with one larger patio, it’s best to use a consistent laying pattern to prevent an already busy brick patio from becoming too busy. A basket weave pattern is one of the most popular patio laying patterns since the eye isn’t drawn in a straight line (such as a running bond pattern). The classic herringbone pattern is also popular on patios.
If you use a basket weave pattern, you could alter the orientation of the pattern to define individual spaces. For example, you could create an outdoor “rug” in the fireside lounge area by rotating the orientation of the bricks 45 degrees; within this “rug” the pavers could remain in a basket weave pattern, or you could try a simpler running bond pattern in this space only. This is a beautiful approach that brings attention to the inherent charm and beauty of brick.
