The Faux- Stone Inspired DIY Walkway
Are you an unfortunate victim of a boring sidewalk or walkway? Do you wish you could add a little flair like a beautiful stone path to your yard, but know that’s just not in your budget? Well, we have a solution for you Bougies!
But first, let’s look at the before…
Let me show you our walkway before (shown above) complete with a crack in the concrete immediately before the seam. Instead of ripping out the walkway, I found a concrete patch repair at a big box store but you can also find one here. You can find it or something similar at just about any big box store and just patch it in. Thank you again, Pinterest.
First things first, The all-important supply list :
- Concrete Cleaner
- Stiff bristle broom
- Quikrete Pathmaker
- Wet-Look Concrete Sealer
- Paint Roller
- Rustoleum Universal Metallic and Hammered Spray Paints
For my walkway, I used the following as I wanted the faux stones to look as natural as possible…So, I used the subsequent spray paints:
Rustoleum “Hammered” spray paints: Gray, Black, Copper, and Dark Bronze
Rustoleum Universal Metallic spray paints: Aged Copper, and Metallic Rust (I love love love this color. It’s a beautifully rich hue).
Rustoleum Universal Forged Hammered Burnished Amber
Getting Started
The first step is to apply the concrete cleaner. You’ll want to start with a clean surface. This is why it is advisable to scrub the walkway with a stiff bristle broom.
Next, you’ll want to take your water hose and spray the area down (basically follow the directions). I’d imagine if you have use of a power washer you could actually skip this whole step, but I wasn’t so lucky. I used Rustoleum Concrete Cleaner, as that’s the only one I found at the time. I’m sure there are others that will do just as good.
After the concrete had dried, I began spray painting the walkway. Now one thing you’ll need to remember is that depending on your coverage area you will need to position the path maker to whatever position (vertical vs horizontal) fits best with your style needs. This is important to ensure maximum coverage and to create a random pattern often found in flagstone walkways.
The Vertical – Horizontal Spin
There are two things, that I think are important to emphasize with this project. The first was that my particular walkway was wide in some areas and narrowed in others. So I had to compensate by alternating the mold from horizontal to vertical positions to fit within the narrow confines of the fence and house, i.e. typical city living. I also on occasion found void spaces within the two molds, so on those occasions I would fill the void by positioning one of the smaller cobblestones within the mold and filling it in. Now you can see in the picture above the different postions the mold was placed in to fill the walkway.
The second and most important matter that I want to stress, is as it makes all the difference and it is also reflected in the picture above( facing the gate). Now that step is to not, under any circumstances skip the sealing step. It truly makes all the difference in a cheesy chalky finish that is reflected in the picture above or a nicer more natural look in the other finished pictures. You can find a wet-look sealer here or a concrete sealer here.
Check out our DIY Tutorial on How to Build your own Circle Paver Patio here.
Now I must warn you I had pretty long walk way extending from the front of my house all the way to the alley. So, I say that to say that I used alot more spray paint than you may need for your project. In total I invested in 3 cans per spray paint color.
I’ve had this now for about three years and so far it has held up pretty good. Always gets a second look! Relatively easy project with a big impact! Go ahead Bougie!…You got this!
The Vertical – Horizontal Spin
There are two things, that I think are important to emphazie with this project. The first was that with my particular walkway it was wide in some areas and narrowed in others. So I had to compensate by alternating the mold from horizontal to vertical positions to fit within the narrow confines of the fence and house, i.e. typical city living. I also on occasion found void spaces within the two molds, so on those occasions I would fill the void by positioning one of the smaller cobble stones within the mold and filling it in. Now you can actually see in the picture above the different postions the mold was placed in to fill the walkway.
The second and most important matter that I want to stress, as it makes all the difference and it is also reflected in the picture above( facing the gate). Now that step is to do not, under any circumstances skip the sealing step. It truly makes all the difference in a cheesy chalky finish that is reflected in the picture above or a nicer more natural look in the other finshed pictures. You can find a wet look sealer here or a concrete sealer here.
Now I must warn you I had pretty long walk way extending from the front of my house all the way to the alley. So, I say that to say that I used alot more spray paint than you may need for your project. In total I invested in 3 cans per spray paint color.
I’ve had this now for about three years and so far it has held up pretty good. Always gets a second look! Relatively easy project with a big impact! Go ahead Bougie!…You got this!
