Tips on Designing a Front Walkway

Straight Walkways

• The straight walkway, a classic landscaping element, is the simplest to design. In fact, the nature of your home may demand a wide, direct path to your front door. That in itself can make a statement. If your property is large, you may want to use a straight walkway design in order to shorten the distance from your driveway or street. If the path from your street or driveway is short, a straight walkway may be your only option; in this case keep in mind that you can add landscaping design elements such as shrubs, flowers and trees.

Rectilinear Walkways

• Straight walkways also give you the opportunity to use intriguing rectilinear design elements. This is achieved by varying the width of the walkway or creating offset sections of walkway for a staggered effect. Rectilinear walkways give you more creative landscape design options. For example, you can create mini landscapes in the corners where the widths vary.

Curved Walkways

• A curved walkway provides a naturalistic feel. However, you'll need a fair amount of space to utilize this design. In addition to space, how your home sits in relation to your driveway, sidewalk and landscaping are also factors. If you have the room for a curved walkway, try to incorporate more than one curve in your design, as well as a straight portion. This will give you more creative landscaping options for flower borders, trees, shrubs and benches. To make a curve in a walkway, use string or garden hoses to mark where you'll cut out the grass and soil for the foundation. You can also use marking paint for greater accuracy. The most difficult part of creating a curve is ensuring that the width stays consistent. Creating a center point for the length of the walkway with a string and frequent, accurate measurements are the solutions to that problem. To lay forms for the curve, bend hardboard siding around stakes.

Walkway Width

• While there's no set standard for the width of a walkway, the accepted standard is 3 to 4 feet. You can go wider or narrower, remembering to keep the width in proportion to the other elements on your property. For example, if you have a front porch with steps that are 5 or 6 feet wide and don't want a walkway that wide, you can create a small area in front of the steps that's as wide as the steps but narrows at the walkway. Also, the purpose of the walkway is a factor. A simple garden walkway can be less than 3 feet wide. In fact, it might need to be only 2 feet wide, depending on the space you have in your garden. The width of a walkway should correspond to an architectural element of the house, to balance the presentation of your property. For example, using your front door as a reference point can relate your walkway to the home's entrance.

Walkway Materials

• Concrete is a durable choice for any walkway design. It's functional, affordable and relatively easy to install. Just take special care to get the forms correctly placed. This is especially true for a curved walkway. The downside of concrete is that it can be boring and that there's limited flexibility for changing it once it's poured. Design alternatives include setting natural stones in the concrete itself, texturing the concrete, creating a border for your concrete walkway, or dry-setting natural stones or gravel in place of the concrete. While these techniques still take time and effort to install, you have more flexibility in modifying your design. Other materials include bricks, flagstone, clay, sandstone, granite and slate.