Give Your Driveway An Elevated Look Using A Mix Of Materials

If you put a lot of time and energy into making your home look welcoming and visually appealing, then it's entirely possible that you may find yourself frustrated by the flat, boring expanse of the driveway on your property. In addition, a light-colored, uninterrupted concrete driveway can more clearly display cracks, weeds, and other inconsistencies. But if you're unhappy with your current driveway, you don't necessarily have to just live with it.

Instead, why not try mixing in a variety of materials to break it up, create visual interest, and draw the eye where you want it to go? There are multiple materials to use on your driveway that go way beyond concrete, such as bricks, gravel, and stones, to help you reflect the style of your home and demonstrate your own personality. In addition, these materials come in a range of shades, meaning you can play around not only with texture but also with color schemes. By selecting a few different materials to use on your driveway, or in the edging around it, you can pull attention away from the driveway and toward the house.

Alternatively, if you feel the exterior of your property could use a little more impact, you could opt to make the driveway itself the statement, using eye-catching angled bricks, colored gravel, and decorative concrete to really upgrade the entry to your home. But which material combination is perfect for giving your driveway an aesthetic upgrade? Let's look into the different substances available and how they might be used for an elevated driveway on your own property. 

The first thing to think about when considering mixed materials on your driveway is practicality. For example, gravel is good for regions with lots of precipitation, as it offers good drainage, but it can be frustrating to keep in place if your driveway gets a lot of foot traffic. Alternatively, bricks are durable and good for intricate designs but can be more expensive to install. Take some time to pick out a couple of popular driveway materials that you like the look of and that you think are a good fit for your budget and practical, everyday needs.

You could edge a simple concrete driveway with dark gravel to draw the eye up toward the exterior of the house. The central concrete section is good for heavy cars, while the darker gravel offsets it and creates a nice bracketed look. Or, you could opt to lay bricks in a herringbone style with horizontal pavers on the edges to create drama and visual depth. Wider pavers on the edges can create separation between the lawn and driveway, meaning you probably won't have to weed between the bricks as often. 

You could even use cobblestones in different colors and pair them with broad, flat pavers to create a nice contrast between the large and small textures. This can help draw the eye toward the cobblestones, allowing the paved area to fade into the background. Finally, if you'd like to incorporate more greenery into your landscaping, you could choose a concrete driveway with gravel garden beds alongside it or even down the middle for a mixed-material look with plenty of living plants.