5 Patio With Pavers Designs, Drawn to Scale (and When Each One Works)

Good patio with pavers designs start at the back door and work outward: a flat landing where you step out, a shape that fits how you’ll use the space, a field pattern and border that suit that shape, then steps, walls or a fire pit placed where they make sense. The five designs below fit a wide range of yards, from a plain rectangle on flat ground to two levels on a slope.

What are the best paver patio designs?

Five paver patio designs fit a wide range of yards: a rectangle off the door, a dining patio joined by a path to a fire pit circle, an L-shape with two rooms, two levels on a sloping yard, and a curved edge with a border band. Pick by the yard’s slope, the house’s shape and how you’ll use it.

All five pitch about 1/4 in. per foot away from the house and need edge restraint on every open side. The sizes in each plan below are examples, so size yours to your furniture.

How to use these designs

Each design below is drawn at the same scale, so you can compare sizes at a glance. The dimensions are examples. Size your own patio from the furniture that will sit on it; our patio size guide has the clearances for tables, lounge sets and fire pits.

Two planning rules from Mississippi State University Extension’s home landscape design guide apply to all five: patios should connect directly to a main door, and the patio’s form should complement the house, so a house with rectangular forms suits a rectangular patio. The same guide suggests laying out the shape with a garden hose and adjusting it until the size feels right before anything goes on paper.

1. The rectangle off the back door

A rectangle along the back of the house is the simplest patio to design and build. In the example, it’s 16 ft along the house and 12 ft deep: room for a table for six or a small lounge set, with the door landing inside it.

It works best on flat or gently sloping yards, for a first patio, and when the budget should go into the base and materials instead of cuts.

• Field pattern: running bond or 90° herringbone, both of which cut cleanly against straight edges. Which way the rows run is a matter of taste.
• Border: one row of whole pavers around the outside. Belgard’s construction guidelines recommend a border course whenever possible so the cuts land inside the field, not at the outside edge.
• Layout: Belgard starts the field from a true 90° corner, and CMHA’s construction guide warns that buildings generally aren’t straight, so joint lines are set from string lines, not from the house wall.

Watch for: the route from the door to the yard. Keep it along one side of the patio, not through the middle of the dining chairs.

2. Dining patio plus a fire pit circle

This design splits the patio in two: a dining patio at the door and a round fire pit area out in the yard, joined by a short path. In the example, a 12 x 14 ft dining patio connects by a 4 ft wide, 7 ft long path to a 15 ft circle around a 3 ft pit, which puts the edge of the pit 25 ft from the house.

It works when you want a wood fire without the smoke drifting against the house, and when one big rectangle stretched far enough to hold a fire pit would mean paving a lot of yard you don’t use.

• Fire pit circle: size it from the pit out. Unilock’s rule of thumb is at least 6 ft of patio on every side of the pit, which is where the 15 ft circle comes from; our patio size guide has the chair math.
• Placement: distance rules vary by pit and by town. Unilock suggests 15 to 25 ft from the house, and our article on putting a fire pit on pavers lists the fire code and maker distances. Check your local fire code before you fix the spot; the example sits at the far end of Unilock’s range.
• Pattern: a circle kit or rings of pavers around the pit, with a band of contrasting pavers around the pit itself. Unilock points out that an accent border around the pit makes it the focal point.
• Path: MSU’s guide puts a comfortable walk for two people side by side at 4 1/2 ft, so go wider than our 4 ft example if people will walk out together.

Watch for: the circle’s own pitch. It needs to shed water like any patio, away from the pit and toward the lawn.

Want the fire up against a wall instead of out in a circle? Our guide to an outdoor fireplace vs a fire pit compares size, footings, smoke and code.

3. The L-shape: two rooms around a corner

An L puts two uses on one patio without making one giant slab. In the example, a 24 x 12 ft leg runs along the house with dining near the door, and a 12 x 12 ft lounge leg reaches out into the yard, finished with a seat wall along its outer edge.

It works when the kitchen door and the best view are in different places, or when the house has a corner or bump-out the patio can wrap. MSU’s guide suggests putting outdoor cooking near the kitchen and keeping seating in nooks away from the main walkways, and an L does both naturally.

• Pattern: one field pattern throughout, so the two legs read as one patio. A band of border pavers across the inside corner can mark where one room ends.
• Seat wall: LSU AgCenter’s fact sheet on seat walls describes them as stand-alone walls built for people to sit on, not to hold back soil, and suggests building them level, with a wider cap making a more comfortable seat.
• Seat height: for a reference point, New York City’s zoning rules for public plazas, which govern city plazas and not homes, require plaza seating to be 16 to 20 in. high and at least 18 in. deep.

Watch for: water at the inside corner. Both legs have to pitch away from the house, so the corner can’t become a low spot that drains back toward the foundation. Our guide to patio slope shows how to set the pitch.

4. Two levels on a sloping yard

When the yard falls away from the house, one tall raised patio means a tall wall and a lot of fill. Two levels follow the ground instead. In the example, a 16 x 10 ft upper level at the door holds dining, and a 16 x 13 ft lower level holds a lounge or fire pit, about 18 in. lower, joined by a short wall and a 6 ft wide set of steps.

• Steps: Allan Block’s stair design guidelines start by dividing the total rise by the riser height; with its nominal 8 in. block, its 48 in. example comes out to 6 steps. On a gentle slope, add pavers to deepen each tread, and on a long run, add a landing. Where stair rules apply, the IRC caps risers at 7 3/4 in. and limits the difference between the tallest and shortest riser in a flight to 3/8 in., so a full 8 in. block riser can be too tall. Pennsylvania’s Uniform Construction Code allows risers up to 8 1/4 in. (34 Pa. Code § 403.21), so an 8 in. block riser passes there. The example’s 18 in. drop works out to three 6 in. risers. Check your local code before you settle the count.
• The wall between levels: under IRC R404.4, a retaining wall that isn’t braced at the top and holds back more than 48 in. of soil, or one taller than 24 in. that also carries a load besides the soil, has to be engineered. Ask your building department whether the upper patio counts as that extra load.
• Guards: the IRC requires a guard along an open-sided walking surface that is more than 30 in. above the grade below at any point within 36 in. of its open edge. Keeping each drop well under that is one reason to split a slope into two levels instead of one raised slab. Towns adopt and amend the code differently, so check your local code.

Watch for: drainage at the base of the wall. Each level pitches away from the house, and the water that reaches the lower level needs somewhere to go besides the foot of the wall.

5. Curved edge with a border band

A patio with one broad curve on its outer edge softens a rectangular yard and suits informal houses and garden settings. MSU’s guide notes that curving, asymmetrical planting beds read as informal and angular, symmetrical ones as formal, and the same idea carries over to a patio edge. In the example, the patio is 22 ft along the house, 11 ft deep at the ends and 18 ft deep at the middle of the curve.

• Pattern and border: a band of border pavers follows the curve, and the field is cut against the inside of the band. Belgard’s guidelines describe laying the field pattern first and cutting curves into it before the pavers are compacted.
• Curve size: as general practice, keep to one or two broad curves. Every curve is a run of cuts along the band, so tighter and more frequent curves add cutting, and our paver patio ideas cover the trade-off.
• Edge restraint: it has to follow the curve too. CMHA lists aluminum, steel, plastic and concrete restraints; ask which one will be used on the curved edge.

Watch for: the cut pieces behind the border. Small slivers work loose, so lay out the field to keep the cut pieces along the band as large as you can.

The five designs compared

Design	Fits	Field pattern	Edges and features	Build complexity
Rectangle off the door	Flat yards, rectangular houses, first patios	Running bond or 90° herringbone	One border course	Lowest: few cuts, simple pitch
Dining plus fire pit circle	Wood fires, deeper yards	Field at the door, circle kit or rings at the pit	Path, accent band around the pit	Medium: circle cuts, two pads to pitch
L-shape	Corners, separate kitchen door and view	One pattern, band at the inside corner	Seat wall on the outer edge	Medium: corner drainage, wall
Two levels	Yards that fall away from the house	Same paver on both levels	Wall, steps, possibly a guard	Highest: walls, steps, drainage
Curved edge with band	Informal houses, garden settings	Any field, cut against the band	Flexible edge restraint	Medium to high: curve cuts

For more on how running bond, herringbone, basketweave and circle patterns compare on cuts and waste, see our guide to paver patterns. For single ideas you can add to any of these, such as lighting, gravel zones or phased builds, see our paver patio ideas.

Rules every paver patio design follows

Whatever shape you choose, these details decide whether the design works once it’s built:

• A flat landing at the door. The IRC’s section on exterior doors calls for a landing at least as wide as the door and at least 36 in. deep in the direction of travel, sloped no more than 2%. On a patio, that landing is simply the first few feet of paving. How far the patio can sit below the door threshold is also set by code, so check your local code before you set the height.
• Pitch away from the house. The IRC also requires impervious surfaces within 10 ft of the foundation to slope at least 2% away, and about 1/4 in. per foot meets it. Decide where that water lands before you settle the shape.
• Blended color. CMHA and Belgard both say to pull pavers from several bundles or pallets at once so the color blends evenly across the patio.
• The same base under every design. The shape doesn’t change what goes under it. Our patios get 6 in. of compacted 2A modified, more on clay or wet ground.

Adding a pergola to any of these designs? Our guide on how to anchor pergola posts in a paver patio walks through footings and metal post kits, and why a pergola on roof pavers needs an engineer.

If you’d like one of these adapted to your yard and drawn to scale, our online patio design plans start at $349 and show the layout, sizes and materials. Build-Ready ($1,795) adds construction details and a quantity takeoff.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I choose a paver patio design for my yard?

Start from the door and the ground. A flat yard and a rectangular house suit a rectangle off the door; a wood fire suits a separate circle out in the yard; a corner or a kitchen door away from the view suits an L; a yard that falls away suits two levels; and an informal house or garden suits a curved edge with a border band.

What is the easiest paver patio design to build?

A rectangle off the back door in a running bond or 90° herringbone pattern with a single border course. It has the fewest cuts and the simplest pitch, and the border lets the cuts fall inside the field instead of at the edge.

How tall should a seat wall on a patio be?

New York City’s zoning rules for public plazas, which apply to city plazas and not to homes, require plaza seating to be 16 to 20 in. high and at least 18 in. deep, a reasonable reference for a backyard seat wall. Build it level and stand-alone; LSU AgCenter notes that holding back soil takes more expertise and engineering, so a wall that does is a retaining wall.

Does a raised or two-level patio need a railing?

Under the IRC, a guard is required where an open-sided walking surface is more than 30 in. above the grade below at any point within 36 in. of its open edge. Check your local code, since towns adopt and amend the IRC differently.

What is the strongest paver pattern?

Herringbone. Belgard’s technical note on pavers for vehicular use calls herringbone, laid at 90 or 45 degrees, the most effective laying pattern for maintaining horizontal interlock, which spreads the forces from turning, braking and accelerating. That guidance is written for driveways and other vehicle traffic; the note does not rank patterns for a patio that only carries foot traffic.

Which direction should pavers run on a patio?

On a patio, which way the rows run is a matter of taste. What matters more is keeping them straight: CMHA warns that buildings generally aren’t straight, so joint lines are set from string lines, not from the house wall, and Belgard starts the field from a true 90 degree corner.

Does a paver patio need a border?

A border is not strictly required, but Belgard’s construction guidelines recommend a border course whenever possible so the cuts land inside the field, not at the outside edge. Separately, every open side of the patio needs edge restraint; CMHA lists aluminum, steel, plastic and concrete restraints.

How far should a fire pit patio be from the house?

Unilock suggests 15 to 25 ft from the house, with at least 6 ft of patio on every side of the pit. Distance rules vary by pit and by town, so check your local fire code and the pit maker’s instructions before you fix the spot.

Sources: Concrete Masonry & Hardscapes Association, PAV-TEC 002: Construction of Interlocking Concrete Pavements (rev. 2022); Belgard Technical Resource Guide, Construction Guidelines: Pavers (p. 15); Mississippi State University Extension, Home Landscape Design (P2698); Unilock, Fire Pits: Ideal Patio Size and Design Ideas; LSU AgCenter, Landscape Ornamental Series: Seat Walls in the Landscape (Pub. 3918); NYC Zoning Resolution 37-741, Seating (public plaza standards); Allan Block, Tech Sheet #1022: Design Guidelines for Stairs; 2021 International Residential Code, R311.3 Floors and landings at exterior doors; 2021 International Residential Code, R401.3 Drainage; 2021 International Residential Code, R312.1.1 Guards, where required; 2021 International Residential Code, R404.4 Retaining walls; 2021 International Residential Code, R311.7.5.1 Risers; Belgard Commercial, Technical Note: Paver Selection Guidance for Vehicular Applications

Written and reviewed by Thayne Muthler, owner of Muthler Landscaping & Construction. How we check facts: editorial policy.