Patio Walls

The rich, warm luster of a stone wall adds dimension to a small patio. But use light colored stones, perhaps streaked with light rose shades, mossy green or a natural light gray. Don't use big boulder size rocks to build the wall because the volume can overwhelm the patio when there is only a small space to work with.

In the patio at this old house there is room for one small section of stone wall. Visualizing it, and drawing it out on landscaping software is difficult, though. Two sides of the enclosure are the exterior walls of the house. The stone wall would be an extension of one of these house walls, only about 2-1/2 to 3 feet wide. It would join up with the wood fencing that makes up the other two walls. Such a small area of rock may not be worth the materials and labor.

The attraction is that even that small segment of stone could be the perfect backdrop to a little design element. A garden statue would look terrific with a stone background. A large potted plant with its green foliage would stand out visually if it had the stone for a backdrop. Even a small fountain could be worked into the design in that corner.


[Photo: Jorc Navarro]