The Ultimate Guide to Designing Your Dream Patio in Sarasota

Nobody ever says, “Let’s go sit out on that bare spot in the yard.” That’s a quick way to end the party. 

But say “Let’s go sit out on my new patio,” and that changes everything.

A new patio means sparkling brunch mimosas serenaded by twittering birds. Or a fun evening with music in the background, twinkling lights overhead, and glasses festively clinking (maybe toasting your cool new patio.)

It means Game Day has leveled up, with savory burgers sizzling on your outdoor kitchen grill while cheering the game on your outdoor big screen TV. Grab a drink — there’s a fridge right there. 

Yep, a new patio changes everything.

But how do you design a patio? How big should it be? Pavers or travertine? Should you include a fire pit? What about shade? Or patio lighting? 

Right now, it’s just a sad bare spot. How to transform it into your favorite destination— your Sarasota dream patio? 

Let’s get to it.

Table of Contents 

Patio Design Ideas: Your Dream Patio Starts Here  

Outdoor Patio Features You’ll Love: From Fire Pits to Tiki Huts

Florida Patio Design: Material Options 

Sarasota Patio Installation: 
Why Proper Preparation is Crucial

Maintenance for Your Sarasota Dream Patio

Hiring a Professional Patio Designer in Sarasota

Patio Design Ideas: Your Dream Patio Starts Here 

Maybe you’ve already sketched out your dream patio on the back of a pizza delivery receipt. 

Wait, is that a fire pit you’re planning, or just a blob of cheese?

You might want a more detailed plan. 

Your Sarasota dream patio takes some detailed planning — and it really helps to have a skilled, creative landscape designer on board.

Not only are they great at deciphering fire pit scribbles from cheese blobs, but they’ll show up with innovative patio design ideas. They’ll help you figure out everything from how big your patio should be to what pavers will look great to what outdoor patio features you’ll really use and love.

Where to start? They’ll knock on your door. Kind of like the pizza guy.

Be ready to answer some questions that go beyond thin or thick crust and how many toppings. 

Your landscape designer will want to know how you want to use your new patio. Will you entertain lots of people out there? Do you need a separate spot for morning yoga? Is a deluxe grilling area part of your plan, or maybe even an outdoor kitchen?

You’ll get into all the fun details. 

Next up, our landscape design team will produce high-quality drawings or 3D renderings, complete with stone and hardscape selections, the features you want to include, and a detailed proposal. 

You’ll be able to picture your new patio space before the first shovel breaks ground.

How much does patio installation in Sarasota cost?

Plan to spend at least $1,700 to $2,000 for an average 10 by10 foot patio space. 
 
That’s for a paver patio, a classic Florida patio design choice. They’re sturdy, readily available and you can’t beat the color, texture and style choices.

The cost is higher if you opt for a natural material like travertine, a form of limestone.

Natural stone costs more to begin with, and it requires more labor to install, too. 

Your designer can explain more about all of this, from cost estimates to furniture planning to how to make your new patio fit into your landscaping with the perfect tropical plants and patio lighting. 

Your first meal out on your fantastic new patio is up to you. Maybe pizza. 

Outdoor Patio Features You’ll Love: From Fire Pits to Tiki Huts

So you have a great new patio! Nice and big. Flat. Empty. Hmmm. That’s not what you were going for, right?

Time to add a feature or two to make it part of your fun everyday outdoor life. 

A few ideas: 

Cozy Up to a Fire Pit or Fireplace

If it’s 90 degrees as you read this, you’ll probably roll your eyes and start scrolling to see if there’s a section called “Chill Out in Your Frosty Patio Igloo.”

Do fire pits and Florida homes mix? You bet. 

Plan a fire pit now, and when it dips to a cool 50 degrees, you’ll feel like a genius. And while every other homeowner is scrambling to find a busy landscaping company to install a cozy patio fire feature, you’ll already have yours.

Besides that genius thing, why do you want a fire pit?

They bring people together. Sure, your living room is nice and your front porch is pretty, but a fire pit is the perfect hotspot hangout for entertaining friends and family. There’s something about the welcoming glow that makes everybody want to stick around. Plus, s’mores! 

Your kids might even want to hang out with you.

Get Tropical with a Tiki Hut

Why do you need a tiki hut? Why wouldn’t you want a tiki hut? 

These custom-built outdoor structures with the fun thatch roofs and tropical vibe are way more versatile than you might think. 

They offer shade. They protect you from the rain so you can still hang out on your Sarasota dream patio even in the drizzle. (It’s cooler in the rain.) A tiki makes even the most mundane situation more fun. It feels like you’re on a tropical resort vacation, even if you’re just trimming your dog’s nails.
 
Add a backyard tiki hut over your patio outdoor kitchen so you don’t scorch in the sun while you whip up your famous Thai tacos. Who wouldn’t love to hang out with you at your fun tiki bar? And a tiki is perfect for a poolside patio design. 

Plus, you can hide out there when it’s your turn to load the dishwasher. 

Cook Up Some Fun with an Outdoor Kitchen

The only bad thing about dining outside is all that pesky carrying food back and forth. It’s kind of a drag. 

Add an outdoor kitchen to your Sarasota patio design. Pesky problem solved. 

Is an outdoor kitchen a patio design necessity? Of course not. But here’s why you’ll love one: 

Entertaining is More Fun

Why should you be stuck inside in the kitchen threading shrimp on skewers while everybody else is outside on the patio having fun? 

Add a kitchen to your outdoor patio features and suddenly everybody’s together, and you’re part of the conversation. It’s easier to delegate kitchen tasks, too — everybody’s handy to pitch in.

Rain? No Problem

A rainy day can quickly douse your outdoor grilling plans, but not if your Florida patio design includes a covered outdoor kitchen.

Easy Outdoor Kitchen Add-ons Multiply the Fun

Extend the outdoor kitchen benefits with a TV, a bar seating area, a beverage fridge, a pizza oven or a meat smoker.

You’ll never have to leave your Sarasota dream patio. 

Add a Bubbling Water Feature to Your Florida Patio Design

When pondering patio design ideas for Florida, don’t forget the sound of moving water. We’re not talking about a busted irrigation line — that’s a bad scene.
 
A water feature adds calm and energy at the same time, offering a stunning focal point and a high-end vacation vibe to your Sarasota patio design.

What’s your water feature style? A cascading fountain? Tumbling waterfall? How about a pondless waterfall? The water recirculates into a basin of water that stays tucked underground. No pesky pond to clog with debris or breed mosquitoes.

It’s patio magic. 

Escape the Patio Sun Beneath a Pergola

Let’s face it, hanging out on a paver patio in the steamy Sarasota sun can make you feel a bit like a grilled cheese sandwich on a hot griddle. 

Make sure you plan for shade in your Sarasota patio design. A pretty pergola is perfect.  


The ultimate Florida patio design feature, these trendy garden structures are made of vertical posts or pillars that support cross beams or lattice overhead.
 
On a hot sunny day, a shady pergola offers overhead protection, filtering the light and lessening the sun’s intensity. They also add a great design element. 
 
Pergolas can be big, nicely covering your entire patio. Or they can be intimate and cozy, offering a perfect little haven for a shady getaway. 

Build a shade pergola right off your sliding patio doors so it isn’t so crazy hot out there when the sun beats down. Why feel like a sizzling grilled cheese when you can feel like a cool fruit smoothie? 

Retaining Walls as Patio Design Ideas

If you think retaining walls are just for holding back tumbling dirt, you’re not giving them enough credit.
 
An expertly designed retaining wall is among the handiest outdoor patio features. 

Kind of like magic, a retaining wall is also a trusty seating wall. Imagine one winding around your patio, offering handy seating whenever you need it. 
 
How about raised flower beds? The same construction that creates a retaining wall is also perfect for raised flower beds that look amazing curving around the edge of your patio, brimming with stunning blue iris ‘Regina’ or drifts of pink muhly grass.

And when you invest in a seating wall, it’s permanent, unlike that patio furniture that will fade and wear out over time.

Light Up the Night with Patio Lighting

If you really want to sit out on your patio in the dark, that’s totally your business. Maybe you’re hiding from your kids, or pretending you’re a spy on a crucial top-secret mission. We won’t rat you out. 

But we’re going to create a lighting plan for your patio anyway. It’s that important for truly using and enjoying your Sarasota outdoor living space. 

Imagine there are festive string lights strung overhead, tropical tiki torches flickering, and all the tropical plants and palms surrounding your patio are cast in a magical glow. (They even make tiki torches that also function as path lights when you’re not using the torch. This whole Florida patio design thing is getting better and better, right?)

If an outdoor kitchen is part of your patio design ideas, don’t forget lighting there, too.

Lighting overhead and tucked under the countertops will help you cook and eat after dark.

Florida Patio Design: Material Options

Let’s see, you want a patio that’s durable, beautiful, and so luxurious  your neighbors will whisper that you must have won the lottery. 

Check out these ideas:

You Can’t Go Wrong with Concrete Pavers

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

Don’t let the boring “concrete” part fool you. Choose concrete pavers that look like quaint cobblestones or sleek modern slabs or even handmade paper. Get ready to have fun with shape, design, and color.

If a paver gets chipped or damaged, no worries. Save a few from your original installation for easy replacement. 

A couple new paver options for from Belgard are pretty exciting:
Empire
Order a pallet of these long, skinny pavers and you’ll get seven different textures just in one pallet. 

Used together, they produce a sort of crazy quilt design that’s an intriguing new option for Florida patio design.

Papyrus
These new pavers with clean, modern edges have the texture of cloth or handmade paper. 

They’re an organic, modern option for patio installation in Sarasota.

Or Design a Patio with 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 Florida patio design materials. That’s a nice plus here in the hot Sarasota sun. 

Travertine's natural texture makes it slip-resistant — perfect for poolside patio designs. Its natural color resists fading, too. 

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

Hmmmm, How to Decide?

Here in Sarasota, about half of homeowners pick pavers for their patio project and half choose travertine.
 
How do they decide? Flip a coin? Throw darts at a board? Check out a couple pro tips: 

• 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.

Your Sarasota Dream Patio: Pondering Colors

This isn’t a red, blue, yellow situation. That would be too easy. 

Paver companies love naming their products things like “midnight” or “mohave.” Fancy. 

Before you get overwhelmed and holler in frustration “I JUST WANT BEIGE!!!” you can probably discover your perfect paver color among three main heavy hitters in the Belgard paver line: 

• Titanium
• Napoli
• Rio 

Your best bet for outdoor patio design is to coordinate your paver colors with the outside of your home, or the color of your trim. Or, even the interior palette of your home, for a cool connection between the indoors and outdoors.

Sarasota Patio Installation: What’s Underneath Your Pavers? 

Before you panic and call the national guard or Ghostbusters, we’re not talking about giant subterranean worms or ticked off zombies lurking beneath your new patio. (Although either of those would add some intriguing excitement to the neighborhood, right?) 

It’s the maybe less exciting, but super important materials and know-how that go into your Sarasota patio installation that we’re talking about here. It really matters.

Some of the most important parts of your Sarasota patio installation are behind the scenes, to ensure your pavers don’t sink and the whole patio doesn’t fall apart at the edges. That could really spoil your dinner party, even without the giant spooky worm. 

The preparation that goes into constructing your patio — before the first paver is even laid — plays a huge part in the quality of the finished product. Thinking of doing it yourself? 
Better bone up on all the important details.

Better yet, make sure you hire skilled, experienced pros who are sticklers for details. 

They should : 

Be All About That Base 

Patio pros should Install about 2.5 inches of crushed concrete for your patio base. Its coarse texture allows for drainage and helps lock the pavers in place. 

A quality base helps make sure your paver patio is level. Skilled Sarasota landscaping services use a compactor machine that exerts 3,500 lbs of pressure per square inch. Serious compaction is crucial to ensure your pavers don’t sink and settle later.

Tropical Gardens paver crews wet the crushed concrete base then run the compactor over it.

Then they wet it again and compact it again. 

It’s serious compacting.

Calculate Proper Drainage

Another big part of paver patio installation is achieving the perfect slope for drainage. 

You don’t want water flowing toward your house. This is a patio party you’re planning, not a pool party. Here in Sarasota, heavy rain is common. It’s an engineering feat to make sure all that water flows to the back or side of your property, away from your house. 
Without proper slope, you end up with erosion or foundation damage.

Install Concrete Edging — Not That Flimsy Stuff 

Proper patio installation edging helps keep the pavers snugly in place and keeps them from shifting. It’s a key part of Florida patio design. 

Northern patios can get away with aluminum edging, or plastic edging with spikes that sink into the ground. 

But here in Sarasota, that won’t cut it. The soil is too sandy and soft here for that. Those things will pull right out of the ground.

It's important to use concrete molded edging, mixed and poured on site. 

Real Pros Think Ahead 

Part of outdoor patio design is thinking ahead. Maybe you’re planning a paver patio installation now, but later on you might want to add landscape lighting or upgrade your irrigation. Or install some high-tech zombie detection equipment. 

Tropical Gardens paver crews install PVC conduit under your paver patio to make adding future projects easier later. That way, we won’t have to tear up all the pavers to do work underneath them. 

Pro tip: don’t just hire a paver patio company. Hire a full-service landscaping company with irrigation and lighting experts on board so they can deal with all aspects of your Florida patio design, no matter what pops up. 

Maintenance for Your Sarasota Dream Patio

Patios are pretty low maintenance, but a few key tips will help it last longer and look better: 

Don’t Skip the Sealer 

Sealer is the important top layer of your patio, whether it’s made of pavers or travertine natural stone.

If you have a paver patio, sealer locks in the sand between each paver for a tight fit, keeping your pavers in place. 

It does all kinds of other cool stuff, too, from preventing fading to deterring weeds and ants to repelling dirt.

Plan to seal your travertine patio, too, to protect it from stains, moisture, and wear and tear. Travertine is a porous natural stone that can absorb liquid spills and etch if left unsealed. Sealing helps maintain the beauty of the stone over time.

When to Seal Your Sarasota Paver Patio? 

A travertine patio can be sealed right away. But you’ll need to wait a bit before sealing your paver patio.

Paver manufacturers recommend waiting one year before sealing, to allow time for efflorescence, which sounds kind of magical, but is really just science. 

Efflorescence is a whitish haze that appears on the surface of concrete pavers within a few weeks or months of installation.

No need to worry — it’s a normal and natural occurrence that happens when water-soluble salts in the concrete migrate to the surface of the pavers, creating the white haze.

You don’t want to seal in this cloudy haze, which is why manufacturers suggest waiting a year to give it time to naturally fade away. We typically tell customers to wait six months before sealing, as the pavers are usually a few months old before they make it to your patio. 

Sealer isn’t a one-time thing. You’ll need to reapply sealer every couple years. 

Water-based sealer is cheaper, but oil-based lasts longer, and also adds a wet look that nicely accentuates the paver colors.

One More Maintenance Note

Patio installation in Sarasota includes adding a layer of sand on top of your pavers that nestles down in between each paver.

Fine, dry sand, sometimes called “sweeping sand,” is the most common sand used between pavers. But a higher-end option is polymeric sand. It’s an upgrade paver patio layer that costs more, but it helps deter weeds.

Unlike regular sand, it’s bound with polymers that cause it to harden after it’s swept into the joints and sprayed with water. That makes it tougher for weeds to take root.

That means easier maintenance for you. Less weeding, more margaritas.

Hiring a Professional Patio Designer in Sarasota 

Nothing against that pizza receipt patio design you scribbled, but it’s time to bring a pro on board for your Sarasota patio design.

 But who? 
Keep a few tips in mind when choosing patio design and installation in Sarasota. 

Check Their Google Reviews

Start here. 

Look for not just lots of stars, but lots of reviews. Four reviews doesn’t tell you much. If more than 50 customers love them, plus they have close to five stars, they’re doing patio design in Sarasota right. 

Do They Ask a Lot of Questions?

They should. It means they really want to create a patio that works for you and your lifestyle. They want you out there enjoying the heck out of that patio every spare minute with outdoor patio features you’ll use and love. 

They want to know how many people you plan to entertain, if you’re the host for all the family parties, what kind of patio furniture you’re eyeing. Do you love sitting around a cozy outdoor fire? Or are you happier practicing poses on a cozy yoga mat? Do you love the latest in trendy contemporary design? Or do you crave the classics?

They’re not being nosy. All those questions means a lot of patio design ideas that add up to your perfect, personalized patio. 

Choose a Full-Service Landscaping Company for Your Florida Patio Design
Does this really matter, if all you need is a patio?

It might.


Landscaping plans have a habit of evolving. Remember earlier, when we talked about fire pits and outdoor kitchens and plants and lighting?

You want a landscaping company that can expertly handle all your needs so your project goes smoothly. 
That outdoor patio installation might affect your irrigation system, your sod lawn, your existing landscaping beds. 
You want to hear two words: no problem. 

Ready for Sarasota Patio Design Ideas? Talk to Us  

Life is busy. You don’t need a bunch of unnecessary complications.
 
You want Sarasota patio installation pros who will make this whole patio process easy.
 
We get it. We’ll meet you at home, on your schedule. 

We’ll chat, check out that sad bare area where your dream patio will soon be, ask all those questions we mentioned earlier and answer all yours.

Our skilled team has more than 5,000 happy customers. Many of them are sitting out on their impressive patios right now. 

We’d love to help you be next. 

Give us a call or fill out our form today!
It’s almost time to order that patio pizza. Save us a slice.