Painting a patio??

Notyalca

I am doing up my garden, we’ve been in our house (a new build) almost 2 years, last year I dug in my beds and planned how the garden was going to look and planted a lot of perennials.  One half of the garden is staying lawn for the kids to play, the other half is a seating area and flower beds which currently has a grass path connecting each section.  This year that grass is coming up and I’m going to have gravel and stepping stones and will be planting some tough creeping plants (like creeping thyme) to create a ‘living path’. 
There was already a patio by my back door which is yellow.  I put in a new patio at the top right of my garden which is also yellow but it is proper Stone.  ( A kind neighbour gave me them as they bought too many, so wasn’t going to complain about the colour) 

Now, I don’t reaaaaaly want yellow flags or yellow stones in my garden - but I don’t want to lay a grey gravel connecting two yellow patios, just wouldn’t look right I don’t think (unless anyone has this , please do post pictures!) 

Ideally id like everything grey,   But it would be easier to just stick with the yellow and buy yellow gravel to work with what I already have... but you all know what it’s  like to buy something and live with something that you never really wanted.  I’m not one to settle for things like that normally..

now the only only other option I thought could work is to paint the existing flags grey and buy the gravel that I’d actually like to look at?

Can flags be painted? Is the paint expensive? What make? Where do I buy it?
Any tips & tricks?? 

Or would you stick with the yellow and just work with what I have and just buy yellow gravel that will match? 

Sorry very long post, hope you can help!

Liz.S.

I have neighbours who painted their flagstoned back yard with green masonary paint, it seems to work for them.

Dovefromabove

I wouldn't paint them ... I'd use toning gravel ... keep everything the same, then it won't glare at you and call attention to itself ... it'll merge and form a background to the lovely plants you're going to grow around it.   Think of it as 'honey coloured' like the lovely stone walls and houses of the Cotswolds 

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KT53

Yes you can paint the patio, but I don't think it will be cheap.  Although masonry paint may do the job it isn't designed to take wear so might become patchy over time.  Here's a link to one site but I must stress that I've never used the product so you'll have to make your own judgement.  https://www.promain.co.uk/home-garden-paints-and-stains/patio-paint.html

Notyalca

I like that you called it honey coloured makes me feel better about it haha. I suppose when the creeping thyme becomes established it will mute the colour abit. 

I love the yellow brick road idea!  Maybe I’ll scrap the idea of painting and look for a more muted ‘honey coloured’ gravel. 

And thanks thanks for the recommendation KT53 I’ll look into it 

Dovefromabove

In my experience, even masonry paint will inevitably wear off in patches and look awful and you'll hate it 

autumnglory

Our patio is yellow cotswold stone but you can only tell when it's been jetwashed. It weathers to grey anyway!

I wouldn't paint it, flaking paint will look worse.

autumnglory

This is ours - the pavers are the same colour as the gravel when they've been cleaned.

Notyalca

That’s the garden at various different times last year. I don’t have a recent picture that show some both patios together.  
Down the sides of the house are filled with yellow gravel, so I just filled in this corner with it for a breakfast area, it does look quite summery being yellow (when the sun is shining haha) 

so maybe it would look ok on the left side of the garden too. 

Might have to paint my gas tank cover to match so I don’t have a big green circle in the middle of the garden and need to invest in a lightweight pot to stick on top. 

I just cant wait to get back in the garden. The garden isnt even close to finished!    It’s a new build so the garden is quite small, so I was sectioning it off to make it feel bigger, and I want a lot of height so you can’t see past each section, if you know what I mean.  Where the gas tank cover is I’m going to have a potted buddleja or something else tall, so you can’t see round the corner and see the seating area, and we are building a pagoda over the bottom patio,

And ill be planting a couple of small trees, in the raised bed at the back so I’ll be ‘borrowing’ the trees in the field at the back to hopefully give my garden abit more debth, 
If I can’t  make my garden bigger, my plan is to grow tall and make it feel grand and large. 

hogweed

Painting the slabs will not work. I used the proper 'garage floor' paint when I painted the slab under the greenhouse and it has all flaked off in patches. Looks worse than ugly. Go with the honey coloured gravel would be my advice. The colours will all tone down with weathering.