Using rock, tile and stone can add a design similar to the decoration of your home to your front yard. By using the same colors and styles of the brick, stone and other materials placed on the exterior of your home, you are extending the decoration of your home out toward the street. You can use these tiles, rocks and stone-like materials to create a gate or partial wall on both sides of the walkway at an entry point, as an outline or as part of the sidewalk. Many homes have a stack of extra bricks or stones left over from construction in their garages or backyards available to use for such projects.
A sidewalk made of stepping stones or large slates of rock can be easily decorated with flowers and other garden plants. You can scatter seeds along the edges of the path in the spring and water them daily for a variety of flowers in the summer, or create a more planned look with garden beds surrounding the walkway and self-chosen flowers and plants. Sidewalks at home can look quirky and unique when a variety of colors and types of plants are used, but some yard work is required to keep the plants trimmed and the front yard looking neat.
There are all kinds of low maintenance decorations that can be used to decorate the sidewalk and its surrounding area. Smaller rocks, such as river rocks, can be used to create designs and rock gardens. Yard decorations such as small animals, statues and flags can be placed around the walkway in order to create a more country-style look. Benches and seats, as well as large pieces of natural wood, can also be used to break up the landscape.
Solar lamps and torches that run on fuel, such as tiki torches, are a great way to give your sidewalk a unique and decorative look, especially at night. You can use lights to accent decorations you already have along the pathway, or as your only decoration. Colored lights can be used during different holidays to celebrate the season, such as red and green bulbs during the holidays and orange and purple around Halloween.