In this post: How to lay a flagstone walkway and how much it improves the look and feel of our curb appeal.
Finally decorate your own home – with confidence!
You’re so much closer to a beautifully-decorated home than you think. You just need a little help to get there!
If you’ve been paying attention, we’ve been talking curb appeal for the last few weeks; we shared how to get a great lawn (ours is still a work in progress – apparently there are no quick fixes!), some gorgeous lighting options from The Home Depot, several photos of front porch inspiration and of course why it’s important to have great curb appeal.
Well…we’re finally ready to show you the first of our own projects – The Flagstone Walkway!
Now, I HAVE to STRESS that this is only a progress picture because while the walkway is actually finished, the grass hasn’t quite greened up between the flagstones – so it’s nowhere near as lush as I’d like it to be. We’re working on it though! Think lots of watering. Me and the hose. The hose and me. Sorry. I digress. We’ll also be adding some high-traffic seed to the walkway this fall to toughen up the grassy area even more.
So how did we get from ‘Before’ to ‘Progress’?
The first thing we had to do when we were planning the new walkway was to decide what we wanted it to look like!
I have always loved flagstone pathways and really love the casual look of a flagstone path through the grass – like a country cottage meandering path. Since we don’t get much snow here, shoveling is not really an issue and because this style of the walkway has the tops of the stones sitting level with the grass, we can just run the lawnmower right over the top to keep the grass trimmed.
We knew we’d found exactly what we were looking for when we stumbled onto this video by The Home Depot.
Since we had a brick walkway and not grass in some of the (expanded) walkway, we had a little more prep work to do than shown in the video. When we removed the existing brick walkway, we found there was a lot of crushed rock underneath.
Hmm, what do we do with that? Aha! Wheelbarrow needed!
Daddy’s helpers putting together THE WHEELBARROW!
Once the handy-dandy wheelbarrow was assembled, Dean removed the crushed rock – and put it aside for later use. We filled in the now-empty space with a few inches of soil and sodded the whole area. (Don’t mind the brown sod – it was super duper hot that weekend).
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Then we were ready to do the step-by-step laying of the flagstone!
Supplies:
- square-headed spade
-
crushed limestone (we used some of the leftover and some new)
-
tamper OR 2×4
-
4 foot level
Step 1
Lay out flagstone in a random pattern. Now would be the time to make adjustments! Look at it from all directions. Turn or move any stones that don’t look quite right. You don’t want uniformity in the spaces but you do need some balance.
Step 2
Once you’re happy with the layout, use the square-head spade (not sure if that’s the technical term!) to cut sod carefully around flagstone.
Step 3
Lift the stone out of the way. Remove the sod and excess soil from underneath. (This seemed a little counter-intuitive for us after having just put down soil under the new sod, but it was necessary. We saved the soil for the garden expansion project, so it wasn’t wasted.) Also, be sure to remove any roots or rocks that may be in the way.
Step 4
Add 1-2 inches of crushed limestone. Smooth out and tamper. You can use an actual tamper, but we used the end of a 2×4 – both because we didn’t have a tamper (!) and because the flagstone was such an irregular shape that the 2×4 worked so much better than a tamper would have.
Step 5
Set flagstone back in place. Press down.
Step 6
Repeat for all flagstones. Then using a long level, be sure all stones are level to each other (not shown).
And that’s it – all done! Again excuse the brown grassy spots…pretend they’re green with me, m’kay?
More Curb Appeal
For more of our current house’s curb appeal projects, visit these posts:
- Working on the Curb Appeal Part 1 – Upgrading the Garage Doors
- Working on the Curb Appeal Part 2 – Painting the Front Doors Black (+ Plants)
- Upgrading the Front Door Hardware
- An Easy Solution to Peeling Outdoor Paint
- Curb Appeal 101 – 14 Ideas for Spring Landscaping
To see our previous house’s curb appeal projects, visit these posts:
- Introducing the Curb Appeal Series
- Curb Appeal Series: The Garden
- Foundation Refacing – How to Cover a Cinder Block Foundation
- Curb Appeal the Big Reveal (at the Bungalow)
- 3 Budget-Friendly Summer Porch Makeover Ideas (at the Backsplit)
Curb Appeal Projects and Ideas:
- Curb Appeal 101 – 14 Ideas for Spring Landscaping
- DIY Vintage Window Flower Box
- 3 Benefits to Replacing Windows and Doors
- Curb Appeal: Pairing Exterior Doors with Lighting and Accessories
What do you think of our new walkway? Are you as partial to flagstone as we are? What is your favorite type of walkway? Any curb appeal projects up your sleeve? Any instant grass-greening tips for us?
The Flagstone Walkway project was sponsored by The Home Depot as part of The Curb Appeal Series. All work, ideas and opinions are – as always – our own! For all of our policies, please visit our Policies page.
