Checkerboard Pattern Pavers in the Backyard

When we added a gate in the back of the yard, we needed to put wheels on them since the gates are so big and heavy. The wheels needed a hard surface to roll on so we used some inexpensive 12x12 concrete pavers we had on hand. We were in a hurry and just slapped them down on the dirt. They were not very level and were super wonky. We swore we would fix it later. Well, it is now later! Several years later, but hey, we got there eventually. Sometimes when something functions well enough, it gets ignored.

This post is sponsored by Wagner but all ideas and opinions are 100% my own.

The pavers were all different textures and varying shades of gray since some were new, some old, and they came from different stores. I am all about using what you've got, so I needed a way to make them all work together without having to buy new matching pavers. Did this little corner of my yard NEED to be pretty and cute? No. Can you even see the pavers from the other areas of the yard? No. But sometimes pretty little details make you happy. And when all the (seemingly insignificant) pretty little details all add up, it makes your space special.

I have always, always loved the classic checkerboard pattern. I especially love my checkerboard ceiling and my checkered tile on my fireplace. Yes, it has gained huge popularity as of late and will probably fade a bit in the near future, but it will never go out of style. I decided I could color the pavers that were the odd balls and create a checkered pattern!

It is not a high traffic area. We only use the back gate when we need to access the firewood pile, compost bin, or use our trailers. But even still, I didn't want to paint the concrete. I opted to go for a concrete stain instead. I chose a charcaol gray color by Behr called Arctic Black.

I started by removing the pavers which was super easy since we had just placed them on top of the dirt.

While Shane dug down a few inches, I cleaned every single paver with a scrub brush. It was a long and tedious job, but necessary if I wanted the stain the adhere to the concrete. I let them fully dry before moving onto the next step.

It was time to stain the pavers! I used my favorite sprayer, the Flexio 3500 from Wagner. It can handle any paint, stain, or sealer. The stain was super thin like water and the concrete absorbed it like crazy. I ended up having to do 4 coats to get a uniform color. If you were doing a solid pad of concrete, you probably wouldn't need to do that many coats. But I was trying to hide the fact that they were all different colors so I needed more coverage.

While they dried, I moved onto prepping the space. We were trying to stick to a budget and this was such a small area, so we decided to skip the paver base step (crushed stone). We went straight to leveling sand. We did lay down some landscape cloth though to try to help with the weed situation. And technically we added a bit of gravel. But that was because we had monsoon storms come through and the gravel kept the cloth in place while it was windy.

I used a board to level the sand. I ended up switching to a 2x4 which worked much better.

Laying the pavers was actually fun, aside from the kneeling on 45 year old knees. Hahaha! It wasn't too bad since Shane was there to hand me a new paver. It was so nice to not have to get up and down a lot.

My favorite part was hitting the pavers with a rubber mallet to level them. It was very satisfying! I had a level with me to make sure they were as even as possible.

I noticed that the side of our gate that faces southwest, was faded and worn looking so I refreshed that side of the gates with a thin layer of stain. You can't have a shiny new paver area and shabby, faded gates now can you? My Flexio 3500 to the rescue again!

Once the pavers were all installed I hosed them off. We hung the gates back into place and it was finally all done. What should have been a quick weekend project ended up taking forever because of all the rain, but I am so happy we finally took the time to get this done. Even if no one really notices it but me :)