Best Paver Options for Your Florida Patio

Just when you thought your biggest new patio decision would be whether it should be square or rectangular or curvy or in the shape of your Golden Retriever, this conversation happens:

You: We’d like a new patio, please.

Landscape designer: Great! What kind of pavers would you like to use? There are 52,638 choices. 

You: …

Designer: …

You: $&#!%!

Well, clearly you picked the wrong landscape designer. They’re supposed to help make this whole Florida patio process easy. 

What are the best pavers for a patio?

Let’s take a look: 

First Up: Concrete Pavers

Concrete pavers are a classic Florida patio choice. They’re sturdy, readily available and you can’t beat the color, texture and style choices.

Get ready to have fun with shape, design, and color. Want pavers that look like rustic slabs? You got it. Quaint cobblestone? No problem. 
Sleek slate? You bet.

If a paver gets chipped or damaged, it can be easily replaced. Save a few from your original installation.

Another Great Florida Patio Choice: Travertine 

Travertine is a form of limestone, with the natural beauty and durability of natural stone. It’s porous, which means it naturally absorbs water, making its surface cooler to the touch than other patio materials. That’s a nice plus here in the hot Sarasota sun. 

Travertine's natural texture makes it slip-resistant. Perfect for a pool patio. Its natural color resists fading, too. 

Because travertine is natural stone, it has to be obtained from quarries, making it a pricier Florida patio choice than concrete pavers. 

Best Pavers for Patios: How to Decide?

Concrete pavers or travertine? Travertine or concrete pavers? Hmmmm, how to choose? 

Flip a coin? That could actually work, because here in Sarasota, it’s about 50-50 between the two. 

But we can be a little less random than that. 

Travertine is great for contemporary homes. Modern lines? Crisp white exterior? Sleek, flat roof? Travertine goes great with all that. 

But if you have an older home, a traditional ranch, a charming cottage, concrete pavers are a better choice. 

Paver Types for Patios: What Color?

This can seem overwhelming. There are a ton of colors: Midnight. Rosewood. Mohave. Sunset. (Just say a random word and it’s probably a paver color.)

Chances are, you’ll find the perfect color among three main heavy hitters in the Belgard line: 

• Titanium
• Napoli
• Rio 

Your best bet is to coordinate your paver colors with the outside of your home, or the color of your trim. Or, surprise, the interior palette of your home. 

What? Your indoor colors?

That’s right. A patio is really an extension of your indoor space, an extra space for dining, entertaining, lounging that just happens to be outside. 

Gray is a super popular color for indoor decor. Maybe it’s your color palette. So why not tie your outdoor space into your decor with a gray patio? Trust us. This works.

Pillow Top vs Flat Top for Your Florida Patio

Nope, we’re not talking about mattresses. Or even pillows. 

Belgard pavers come in a pillow top design and a flat top. 

Contemporary homes look great with flat top pavers. They have a similar look as travertine.  

Pillow top pavers create a patio that goes well with older homes, cottages or ranch-style houses. 

The popular pillow top Appian line at Belgard has been in use for 20 years. 

Speaking of that…

Paver Types for Patios: Stick with the Classics 

Say you installed a Florida patio 20 years ago and used some trendy diamond cut pattern. Or pink-hued pavers that were all the rage. Super cool — at the time. 

Now, you’d like to enlarge your patio. Or install a walkway from your patio around the side of your house to connect to new landscaping. 

Hmm. It’s unlikely you’ll be able to match those quirky pavers now. You’ll probably have to replace the whole thing. 

While paver manufacturers are kind of crafty, slightly changing their dyes every few years so colors are suddenly different, you’ll still have a better chance of matching yours down the road if you stick to classic colors and designs. 

Best Pavers for Your Patio? Talk to Us 

You could spend five months poring over paver designs and colors, getting frustrated and risking high blood pressure. 

That’s five months you could be spending on your actual completed patio, lounging with a good book and sipping a tropical drink from a coconut.

That second one sounds way better, right? 

Trust your Florida patio — and the rest of your Sarasota landscape design — to us. 

Let’s get started. We’ll help you figure it all out.