Walkways lead a company to a welcoming home, meander through flower beds, and even provide a passage through a yard. They also should mesh well with both your home's architectural design and surrounding landscaping. Whether you are starting off with new landscaping designs, looking for inspiring ideas, or tearing up and starting over- you might as well take advantage of the thousands of available ideas rather than reinventing the wheel. We’ve compiled a series of 70 different walkway ideas and designs below to put them all in one helpful place, and get your creative juices flowing.
Walkway Materials
There is a seemingly endless supply of walkway material ideas available out there, and it seems anything that can create a path is fair game. Everything from timber wood, stamped concrete, brick design layouts, and natural stone are provided below to give you an idea of what your options are.
Concrete Walkway Ideas
Concrete isn’t just a drab gray anymore. Color additives, surface polishes, stamps, and engraving are all new ways to show off your eclectic style. Plus, concrete is a fairly inexpensive choice and is easy to do yourself with a little bit of research to stay within budget.
Picture Perfect
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When working with concrete pavers, placing them in a less than perfect alignment brings further interest to your walking path. These light pavers are even spaced to allow a uniform slate rock to be patterned in between that mimic the surrounding landscape colors and patterns.
Concrete Etchings
Although these look much like a brick walkway, concrete can be stained and etched to mimic for favorite materials. This is a great way to keep your weeding to a minimum as you won't have any little seeds making their way in between these bricks over time. Professional companies often have a variety of colors and designs for you to choose from if you decide to take the etching route.
Walking on Water
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Solid pond foundations provide perfect garden borders, as well as a place to create a unique walkway. This is definitely a design that requires quite a bit of advanced planning to make sure the pond is well sealed, and the walkway base is sturdy and in place before filling the pond. But the effect is stunning.
Colorful Creation
Etchings really can take on just about any idea you can think of, like this colorful stone walkway that is actually a well designed solid path. Concrete often provides a much less expensive option, not to mention the time you save in actually making it. Finding the stone, laying out the design, and grouting the spaces takes time and money. Leveling the walkway and pouring concrete before applying the design can often be more feasible.
Dual Purpose
Concrete border pavers don’t have to be used for flower bed boundaries. Get creative with their often fun, and curvy shapes and make them your own. These arching borders have been put to use as a walkway, complete with traffic friendly vegetation.
Do It Yourself
Get creative for a one of a kind walkway that incorporates river rock, colorful glass, pebbles, or anything else you can think of that you can press into wet concrete. This provides not only a fun walkway to travel upon but a great conversation piece. If you have children this is a great way to get them involved as well.
You might also like: 39 Easy and Affordable DIY Concrete Projects for your Garden
Dual Purpose II
Make your walkway look bigger than what it really is using pea gravel or river rock in conjunction with concrete pavers. Choose from a variety of colors to provide contrast and interest like these rust colored steps next to mixed lights of the rock. You can also match them to your garden border material to help complete the overall look.
Stone and Rock Walkway Ideas
Create rustic, old-fashioned appeal using local stones, or get exotic with a mix of specialized rocks from far away places. No matter what you choose rocks and stone can create both walkway and walkway border materials to meander along at any time.
Sectional Flagstones
Placing stone so it all fits together well is already a challenge, but doing so within consistently set boundaries is even more so. The effect is stunning, however, such in these well-bordered flagstone paths that lay out perfectly rectangular cut stones intermixed with the natural shapes of well-placed stones.
Puzzle Pieces
Color matching across garden walls, gazebo construction, and walkways allows the simple landscaping to take a front row seat to aesthetic appeal. Laying out flagstone is like putting together a jigsaw puzzle, and these well placed pieces provide a smooth path through the well kept surrounding gardens.
Perfect Angles
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Take a walk on the wild side and instead of placing straight lines in perpendicular placements, put them at angles to one another. This is an unexpected look and provides more than just a walkway, but also a new visual focal point along your home and garden walls.
Decorative Designs
Mix and match stones and pavers to not only create an eclectic walkway, but a piece of art to compliment your landscaping. These swirls and color combinations are filled in with rocks of varying shapes and sizes to help provide a focal point. Fun to make and even more, fun to look at!
Natural Placement
Simple Spaces
Pea gravel is often difficult to walk through and also can get a bit boring when used in large amounts. Break up the monotony, and provide an easier stroll through the yard with some well-placed stones. There is no need to fit them together as the pea gravel will easily fill in those gaps, as well as provide contrasting differences.
Latticed Paths
These stone pavers are placed in a patterned design within the lawn itself to provide a lattice effect. Although it does provide a rudimentary walkway, it serves as more of a part of the landscape itself and mimics the architectural materials used in the surrounding buildings.
Going Down
Instead of a traditional stairway, place some oversized stones within a gently sloping hill to provide a way down, and up. This natural look doesn’t take away from the well-manicured flowering shrubs, and also happens to give contrast to the soft ground moss used in lieu of grass.
Stone Stairway
Stone details are often used along meandering paths, but not often seen when a slope is involved. But stone can provide the perfect detail to a well shaped and planned out hillside staircase as seen in this case that incorporates long, shallow steps to guide your way.
Leading the Way
This gravel walkway leads the way with unique, and well-planned works of art throughout the garden that incorporates the walkway material into their design. This particular tree uses soft grasses and varied color rocks to define and lift it from the surrounding walkway. Surprise your company with similar pieces of art!
Hopscotch It
Children’s hopscotch boards alternate a one and two box design for hours of play. Using the same pattern you can create an interesting pathway that doubles as a fun, permanent place to play for your children. Set them right into your lawn for easy maintenance and further interest.
Mosaic
This mosaic of stones provides uniformity and a simplicity to your front walk. This can be achieved in a variety of ways using larger pieces of flagstone that you break and place back together, or you can even create the effect with concrete etching.
Framed Stepping Stones
These unique stepping stones are well framed by a river rock pathway. This type of design really can serve a dual purpose and be more than a walkway, but also allow for good boundaries between garden beds and help keep weeds at bay.
Seeing Stars
Contrasting stone colors can be bought by the yard. A level sand foundation provides the perfect canvas to create your own designs and keep your ideas in place. Depending on placement using sand to fill in the gaps and then grout often sets the design and keeps it from moving, but concrete can also do the trick.
Walkway Garden Ideas
Pathways through your gardens are a great way to show off your favorite flowerbeds and landscaping techniques. Showcase your colors and textures using unique walkways that mimic their surroundings, take your guests on a tour of your hard work.
Slate Sidewalk
Natural slate is allowed to take on the texture and shape of its natural formation. Although it may not call for a completely level walkway, it is a fun way to bring interest to your yard.
Groundcover
These stones are set as to suggest they are rising from their grassy surroundings rather than having been placed as such. Changing the perspective and way many materials are used can provide an entirely new look to your landscaping design.
Focal Point
By making the pathway large enough to make it the focal point, the surrounding lawn and garden beds compliment the choices you make in the walkway itself. For once let the landscaping reverse roles to provide a large space for entertaining and relaxation.
Making Waves
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A large amount of detail went into sorting and designing this walkway that doubles as a work of art. Perfect for a seaside cottage or even within an urban garden, this path will most likely always serve as a topic of conversation.
Simple Circles
Unexpected shapes and designs stand out amongst the more traditional materials used in this garden sidewalk. Detailed circular pavers mimic the shapes of the surrounding plants and blooming flowers throughout the growing season.
Detailed Decor
This incredibly detailed path is made up of thousands of small stones that give an impression of a welcoming rug rolled out to invite in visitors. This walk must have taken countless hours to complete but is complementary to the many hours taken in the surrounding gardens to complete the overall look.
Sunny Shapes
The creators of this pathway took advantage of the natural shapes of the stones used to provide a mirror of the surrounding garden beds in both color and flower shapes. This converging of paths highlights a happy sunflower and makes the path’s visitors searching for more familiar shapes
Wooden Walkway Ideas
Whether you live in the country or in the city, the many hues and texture natural wood lend to both rustic and contemporary design compliment almost any landscape or house architecture. Plus, they often blend in well with the many wooden deck designs that exist.
Textural Design
Wildflower beds frame a well-designed pathway interspersed with pebbles and weathered boards. This simple design looks as if it was accidentally uncovered from the tangled vegetation, but provides a leading walkway to a comfortable area to lounge within.
Smooth Beach Walkway
Bring the beachfront to your backyard with a carefully designed wooden pier walkway amongst a fine pebbled landscaping with grassy plantings. A pondless waterscape brings the sound of flowing water without the number of upkeep ponds occasionally have.
Added Interest
A brick seating area is provided access from a well designed wooden walkway through garden beds and leading over a symmetrical pond. Mixed bricks, greenery, and waterscapes are well framed by the planked paths through this comforting backyard.
Reclaimed Cookies
Cookies, or the thin slices of wood taken as a cross cut of a tree trunk, add varied interest to many different projects you may have in mind around your yard. These particular cuts are being used as a walkway and provide an entirely new dimension to your garden space.
Floating Way
This unique design incorporates unusual media and materials to provide a backyard that will leave your guests talking. Stained and shaped wooden islands provide a pathway over a shallow pond and incorporate well into the unique decking and stone garden bed borders.
Mixed Media
Pebbles and planks lead you through a well-landscaped backyard and provide detailed interest. How you use color and texture in your yard can be a part of more than just your flowerbed and lawn layout. You’ve already seen how pebbles can provide texture to your walkway although it doesn’t have to be anything large and overbearing. Smaller designs can be easily incorporated into wooden ways to highlight your artistic views.
Overlooking Pathway
This wooden porch doubles as a peaceful waterscape walkway. Bring a taste of a seaside resort to your own home with simple pond and plank architectural design. Raised garden beds provide vegetation that reflects upon the water and gives a peaceful, relaxing overlook.
Brick Walkway Ideas
Brick is such a fun way to incorporate into your landscaping, and even more so in patterned walkways, or as path stones. They can compliment your housing materials in both color and texture, or bring new detail to the surrounding vegetation.
Perfectly Placed
This long path is flanked by grassy lawns and towering trees. The brick design takes you back in time and provides an old-fashioned, eclectic feel too large, open spaces. This dark brick complements the surrounding yard in any season.
Matching Front Walk
Brick and mortar is a popular building material and comes in a variety of shapes and sizes. Brick housing material is complimented nicely by a muted version along with the front walk and is reflected nicely in the horizontal lines created by the careful placement.
Architectural Collage
Brick architecture is reflected in the intricate collage of porch steps and garden borders. The rich reds and browns provide the perfect backdrop for the bright greens and colorful blooms seen amongst the carefully planted garden beds.
Framed Walkways
Nontraditional brick colors and shapes provide the perfect frame to concrete paving stones for a more interesting walkway. The uniformity of bricks is the perfect choice when consistency is an important aspect of your desired look.
Hidden Paths
A narrow brick path emerges from the lush vegetation to lead to a secluded, and private back porch. Walkways don’t have to be wide and inviting. This particular path provides a sense of mystery and intrigue and happens to be a fun change from a traditional design.
Widened Walks
Walkways don’t have to be straight and narrow. Widen out areas into patios, or as simple places to pause and view the surrounding landscape. Plus, variegated green vegetation looks brighter against the red tones of the brick.
Zigzag
Why lay your bricks out in a traditional manner when the rectangular shape can be patterned in so many ways? This chevron inspired design provides interest and a bright path amongst well-shaped boxwood hedges.
Covered Walkway Design
Fully covered or partially covered walkways are a great way to extend front porch designs, or just provide a unique way to get from one point to another on your property. Living walkways, canopies, and timbers can all provide eclectic designs to sit back and enjoy.
Bamboo Arches
Arched bamboo stalks allow for a play on light and shadow and provide an interesting and unique walkway within a garden. Weeping willows frame the exit of this particular path and allow the green brightness to seep in.
Perfect Pergolas
Modern and well-measured timbers provide a contemporary look to this poolside walkway. Pergolas provide a bit of shade and a ton of interest to any backyard landscaping design.
45. Wisteria Way
Wisteria is a quick growing, strong vine that needs a sturdy support but allowing them to grow up and over a walkway provides a wondrous green and purple beauty to walk amongst when in bloom. This long path is covered by an abundance of wisteria and the shadows by night are well lighted by hanging lamps.
Leading the Way
This simple timbered pergola provides a cool and welcoming path to the front door. Framed by large palms, privet hedges, and bright annuals that give depth and interest along the walk, the covered way is a perfect choice for otherwise bright and sunny climates.
Flagstone Walkway Ideas
Flagstone is a traditional material often used for garden stepping stones or pieced together for walkways. Their varied muted colors can be mixed and matched to achieve your desired effect to highlight both architecture and surrounding landscape designs.
Perfectly Pressed
Perfectly placed and pressed flagstone provides an almost seamless walk to the front stairway and walk. Often found in older styles homes, this landscaping mimics English country styles with well-shaped hedges and meandering ivy groundcover.
Geometric
Perfectly spaced stones meander through this landscaping that mirrors the shapes found throughout the ground plans. Circular plantings, garden beds, and groundcover are strategically placed to help bring unity to the overall effect.
Boxed Steps
Like perfect packages, these varied shapes of flagstone are placed just a bit off center and not quite similarly spaced to add interest and design. River rock rounds out the overall design to provide depth, texture, and interest as you meander along these paths.
Marbleized
Bright swirling designs and colors are incorporated naturally into these large slabs of flagstone to create a marbleized relief to a large pedestrian pathway. Unexpected colors and textures lend new effects and can be rather attractive in most landscaping design.
Walking a Ladder
This specialized flagstone is laid out to mimic the effects of a ladder and even gives an illusion of shadows to provide a walkway that looks uneven. This interesting pathway is probably not what most people are aware of as being available as a design since we are often very used to a more plain, traditional look.
Stepping Stone Walkway Ideas
Step your way through the yard on fun, and colorful stepping stones. The sky truly is the limit when it comes to these types of stones as they can be customized and varied to fit any type of decor. Plus, they are an easy DIY project that often doesn't take much time or skill to complete.
Manicured Paths
Well manicured paths use a uniform color to showcase both an open landscape design and lead you to an inviting backyard. Like a stripe, the gray pebbled bath is marked by firm stepping stones and divides the lush lawn from a forested hillside.
Broken Ways
Placing steps amongst pebbled paths is a popular design, but break up the monotony of the look by providing breaks amongst the stones, or even placing them in an uneven manner. This particular path uses this technique to give it a more natural, unplanned look.
Rounded Reflections
The gentle curves of these stepping stones are reflected in the shapes of the natural garden border rocks, and carefully placed birdbath. This symmetry in shape allows a balance within the landscape design and provides an inviting feel as you walk along the paths.
Stone Ways
Specialized rock patterned stepping stones give an illusion of soft, woven mats leading the way through a rocky path. Don’t settle for just plain pathways, but add in a bit of the unexpected with fun designs like these.
Blooming Ideas
This simple path leads to an inviting firepit, and from above looks like a blooming flower. Have fun with your rock shapes and uses them in unexpected ways like this eclectic design.
Perfect Pictures
Stepping stones don’t have to be detailed only by color and shape choices. Many come with designs of your choice, such as these blooming products that mimic your gardens during the warmer months. In the fall and winter, their bright designs help cheer up the otherwise bleak landscape.
Walkway Landscaping Ideas
The landscaping surrounding your walkway can either complement or be complemented by your walkway choices. Colors and textures provide varied contrasts and highlight the time you take within your yard.
Tiptoe Through the Tulips
Seasonal flowers line these long pathways to help brighten up your walks. Pink tulips start you out each spring followed by a medley of summer vegetation. Make your walks more interesting by providing fun and inviting aesthetics to help guide the way.
Layered Looks
Stones frame this meandering walk which in turn are highlighted by the sloping hills of surrounding flower beds in full bloom. Create large, layered flower beds with blooming annuals for color all summer long.
The Rock Garden
A true rock pathway is supported by a true rock garden complete with grasses breaking free of their borders and traffic friendly ground covers. Many of these choices are also drought friendly to ensure long-lasting color through the growing season.
Prickly Perfection
Xeriscaping is defined by simplicity and vegetation tolerant of dry conditions, This pathway is surrounded by a variety of colorful, and interesting vegetative choices that provide interest to an otherwise hot, dry garden bed.
Blissful Manicures
Simple paths are often best highlighted by simple, well-manicured surroundings. Soft circles and curves let the eye roam across this large front yard marked by pretty plantings.
High Hedges
These gardens are marked by an increase in height the further from the path you stray, creating a feeling of a labyrinth. High hedges mark the boundaries of separated gardens with welcoming passages to new discoveries.
Shaped Shrubbery
Keep your vegetation to a minimum, simple, and well shaped if you want your pathway focus to be upon the destination, and not the trip itself. Prettily shaped hedges are complimented nicely by colorful, natural-looking bushes but still keep the eye moving along the direction you are headed.
Boxwood Borders
A meandering grassy pathway is often best served by a low border of sorts. This garden uses vegetation as a border choice and keeps a well-hedged boxwood as the perfect contrast to help mark both the path and garden beds for visiting guests.
Shaped Symmetry
Mirrored images are seen in almost every aspect of this landscaping design which is mimicked nicely in the stone pathway provided amongst the gardens. Incorporating your walkway choices into the actual plantings to help bring attention to their shapes is something you will want to plan in advance.
Walkway Lighting Ideas
Walkways aren’t just for the light of day. Electric and solar lighting pays compliment to all your hard work each evening as the sun sets, and helps you find your way by night. It also provides an ambiance to either walk through or sits back and enjoy after the sun has set.
Light Up the Night
This porch walkway hovers above a well-lit pond and provides gentle nighttime lighting to lead the way. The reflective surface of the pond provides an even brighter path to view the surrounding landscape and enjoy the water below.
Delicate Lamplight
Outdoor lighting comes in a wide variety of choices to match your decor. These desk lamp style solar lights provide the perfect walkway illumination to help lead the way along a well-manicured lawn.
Floating Lanterns
Tall buildings and delicate bamboo line this gravel walkway through an urban alley. Well placed floodlights cast delicate shadows across the pathway, and oval shaped and lite lanterns look like they are floating alongside the paths.
Lovely Aura
These unique solar lights provide a soft, calming glow along a graceful gravel path. Simple flowerbeds are kept within their borders by complementary rock borders that help provide a gentle slope through the evening glow.
Can You Pick Just One?
Whether you are looking for a walkway idea for a pathway to your front porch, or a meandering walk through your yard and garden, these many ideas are sure to get your creative juices flowing. Hopefully you’ve found a choice (or ten) amongst the many provided to get you started on a walkway designing journey.
Which designs can you not wait to incorporate into your plans? Please comments and share your ideas below. And as always, please share!