Picking the right paver colors for your driveway, patio, walkway, or other installation is an important step in the construction process.  One of the great advantages of paving stones over other materials (like stamped concrete or asphalt) is that there are so many colors and styles available to the homeowner. His or her creativity can truly run wild when working with outdoor pavers.

There are some limitations, however, to your creativity. The color blend you select needs to either match or complement other elements of your home and landscaping. You also need to make sure that the brand, style, and pattern that you select meshes well with the colors you desire.

The color varieties come in one, two, or three color blends. Single color blends consist of one color throughout the paver, and can be combined with other single colors, such as lining a pewter colored patio with a charcoal border. These are the easiest to lay as little color coordination is required.

Two and three color blends consist of two or three different colors, respectively, mixed together throughout the pallet. It is not like mixing two single blends, however, as each paver will consist of some combination of your two or three selected colors. For example, in a golden brown blend, some pavers will be almost entirely gold, others will be entirely brown, while others will be half and half. All paver colors of this blend will lie somewhere on this continuum.

Two and three colored blends usually must be ordered in a minimum quantity to ensure adequate color distribution throughout the project; indeed, smaller projects should avoid three color blends altogether. When working with two or three color blends, pavers should be taken from multiple pallets at a time, working through whole sections simultaneously. If pavers are taken from one pallet at a time, and from each layer of the pallet at a time, the colors will not be distributed properly throughout the project, and the look of the pavers will be off.