Landscape Steps | Bluestone, Brick and Pavers

Landscape steps might be needed in various places. Outdoor steps might be incorporated into a walkway design where they are necessary to lessen the steepness of the walk. There might be a raised patio where a transition is required to get to a lower or upper level. Landscape steps can also be used where they would make for easier access along a steep area.

When designing garden steps, it works well if the height of the riser multiplied times two, plus the depth of the tread equal between 24" and 27". For example, a 6" riser and 12" tread would be comfortable, according to the above math. This is a very common relationship.

Risers can be anywhere from 4" to 9" high. However, staying below 8" will be more comfortable when using the steps.

The materials used for the steps should go well with any paving adjacent to them, whether that be walkways or patio designs.

Here are some design option to use with different paving materials.

Outdoor Steps With Brick Patio or Walkway Designs

You can certainly use brick risers and treads to match for landscape steps. However, you might also consider brick risers and bluestone treads. Depending on the width of the steps, the treads can be one continuous slab of bluestone or cut into pieces. I prefer one piece, unless your steps are extremely wide. Otherwise you end up with small pieces.

You can also use one large solid piece of bluestone which serves as both the tread and the riser. Each one looks like a large long block of stone, perhaps 6" high by 4' long.

Bluestone "steppers" or "garden stones" are also available. These are large irregularly shaped pieces of bluestone. Since bluestone looks pretty with brick, any of these design ideas will look great. You can see a picture of the bluestone steppers here.

Outdoor Stairs With Bluestone Walkway or Patio

If you have a bluestone walkway or patio, you might consider either the bluestone blocks or steppers. However, you can also use bluestone treads with stone risers. This is a nice option, as it breaks up the bluestone paving a bit. The stones making up the risers can be narrow or larger ones. Bluestone treads can be either natural cleft or thermal finish.

Natural cleft bluestone is where the edge of the stone that you see is very straight and precise.

Thermal finish bluestone has a rougher edge. Actually bluestone pieces themselves can also have a thermal finish.

Landscaping Steps For Paver Walkways and Patios

These situations take a little bit more thought. You can use a coordinating block, such as Versa-lok Mosaic for the risers. The tread can be made out of bullnose pavers, paver coping stones which are wider, or even matching block cap stone. The bullnose pavers look like brick with a rounded edge. The wider coping stones are also rounded. I try to match the block and pavers.

A nice combination that I used recently was the Eagle Bay - Grand Cay Cobbled paver in the "Blue Ridge" color along with the Eagle Bay Anchor Highland Stone (this was the block for the risers and nearby walls) also in the "Blue Ridge" color. They looked great together. All of the selections were a mixture of grays and tans.

You can also use the above mentioned bluestone steppers with paver walkways or patios, as long as the paver color looks well with the bluestone.

Outdoor Steps in Lawn

I love to use the bluestone steppers right in the lawn. They can be as wide and as deep as you like. I will often create small planting beds along the edges of the steps with low growing perennials such as Thyme or Sedums. You can also use groundcover. This all creates a very casual and natural area.

If many landscape steps are needed, I prefer to group them. You might just need three steps, and in this case I would try to place them together. If you need as many as ten, for example, I would create a grouped series, such as four, three and three. There would be walking space between these groups.

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