4 Tips for Designing Your Driveway

Planning and designing a new driveway can be as fun and fulfilling as any other aspect of home design and improvement. Here are some tips for making your new driveway look great.

1. Get some lamp posts

Driveway lamp posts are a great way of ensuring that you can see where you’re going when heading out or coming home in the dark, and they also add an elegant look to the outside of your house. For an eco-friendly option choose solar lamp posts, which will charge up during the day and be ready to light your path at night. Make sure you pick a model which will come on automatically at dusk, so you don’t have to worry about remembering to light the lamp posts before you leave the house. Some models also allow you to mix and match different pole bases and lights, so let your creative side loose and choose the style and color which work best for your setting!

2. Put down some gravel or slate chippings

As well as wanting your driveway to look elegant and clean, you will need to ensure that the terrain is even and stable enough to make it safe for you to drive over in all climates. Putting down gravel or slate chippings will make the ground grippier than grass or bare earth, and will look much more appealing than asphalt, concrete or tarmac. To make sure that the gravel or slate chippings remain stable, use ground reinforcement grids underneath—these are sturdy ground coverings that you can install yourself. Head here if you need help understanding ground reinforcement grids.

3. Decorate the sides of your driveway

While you want the middle of your driveway to remain clear of obstacles at all times so your vehicle(s) can easily go through, if you have a wide enough driveway there’s no harm in decorating its sides, which will add to the aesthetic of your outdoor space. Flowers and hedges are a popular choice for decorating the sides of driveways. If your driveway is paved over with concrete or bricks, consider using sturdy outdoor planters rather than planting flowers or a hedge in the soil, in order to avoid the potential issue of roots cracking the paved surface. Remember that even if you’re only planning to plant small flowers there’s always the possibility that weeds will take hold! Fortunately, it’s easy to find long rectangular outdoor planters in a variety of styles.

4. Add a driveway gate

Finally, add an extra decorative touch with an ornate metal gate, and choose an automated or remote-controlled one for maximum convenience. To really bring your driveway’s look together, coordinate your gate and your lamp posts so they match in both color and style terms. If you need some inspiration, browse the internet (or the real world!) for stately homes and other grand buildings, which often have impressive metal gates. Make sure you use anti-rust paint to keep your driveway gate in the best possible condition.