Front Entry Walkways

A well designed front sidewalk should provide a functional and pleasant feeling pathway between your front door and the natural entry points onto your property for visitors.

A really nice front walkway is the backbone of your front yard curb appeal and it's one of the first things people will notice about your house as they walk in.  Ideally, a front walkway will guide your guests through nicely landscaped spaces, creating a comfortable and visually pleasing experience as they walk to your door.

Designs that provide natural flow of movement to the door from the places that guests naturally want to enter your yard, just feel right.  And conversely, a poorly designed can look/feel a bit awkward to say the least.

1.  Walkway Access Points

When friends and family come to visit, how will they enter the sidewalk as they come in?  Will they park on the driveway or the street?  If they do park in the street, will your guests need to walk up your driveway in order to enter onto the walkway?  If so, how would a car that's parked in the driveway effect some ones ability to access the walkway via the driveway?  Do you have a city sidewalk in front of your home?   

All of these questions and more help us determine the front walkway design that will work best for your home. 

2.  Create Flow in the Yard

It's important that your front walkway is designed to accommodate the way you will use it as you move around your yard.  How will you use your walkway?  Sometimes, there may be smaller pathways that connect the primary front walkway to other spaces in the yard, such around the side of the house.  Walkway and front yard landscaping plans will also often include a pathway or stepping stones through any landscaping beds that might surround the front walkway. 

3.  Front Walkway Width

How wide should the walkway leading to the front door be?  A well designed primary front sidewalk should never be less than 4' wide.  Most of our front walkway redesigns are 5-6 feet wide, but each project is different.  A primary entrance pathway that is 5 feet wide or greater creates some needed grandeur where it should be, at front entrance to your home.

Other walkways and pathways around your home will typically be narrower than your front walkway.  These less formal walkways are typically 3' wide and may also include stepping stone or gravel pathways.

4.  Snow Removal Considerations

In MN, a front entry walkway should be constructed in a way that do not inhibit shoveling or snow blowing.  For instance, we don't recommend using stepping stones with big gaps between stones for a primary front sidewalk material.  This is because large gaps between stones make shoveling difficult.  Shovels and snowblowers catch on the edges between stones, making shoveling a pain.  However, we have no concerns whatsoever about using stepping stones for pathways as long as they don't need to be shoveled in the winter.

Natural stone is arguably the best looking material you can use for a new walkway.  Cut and patterned flagstone refers to natural stone that is cut into uniform rectangular or square pieces, which can then be installed in a pattern with fixed spacing between stones. 

Although there are others, the majority of our cut and patterned flagstone options are forms of: bluestone, limestone, sandstone or slate. When selecting a natural stone for your patio, there are lots of stone colors to pick from. There are several options within the gray tones, tan / cream as well as multicolor stone options.

Pavers

You have so many great options to select from with pavers, because they come in many shapes, styles, sizes, colors and patterns.  Pavers are cast concrete products that are very durable and are suitable for many purposes such as patios, walkways, pool decks and even driveways.  Pavers typically costs a little less than similar looking natural stone options. 

The most popular paver styles being used now tend to be larger in size than the pavers used in the past.  Modern style pavers styles often replicate the look of cut and patterned flagstone, but cost less. There are also many other paver styles to choose from, including styles that replicate the look of cobble stone, brick and tile.

Clay Brick Pavers