Step Stones and Coping

One of the first raw materials ever used in landscape construction was natural stone. The reasons why it became an essential building material many centuries ago remain as true today as they did then.

Which is why natural stones are top of the list for the best hardscaping materials for steps and stairways recommended by landscape architects, designers, contractors.

When it comes to designing a landscape project, natural stone copings and steps, take your outdoor living space to a whole new level of beauty, functionality and uniqueness.

If your backyard outdoor living space includes a noticeable slope that makes it awkward to move from one level to another, or you wish to enhance the front of your home with a stunning entrance, natural stone steps are the solution.

Flagstone, travertine, stack stone or pavers call all be used to create a visually stunning and functionally unique outdoor steps and stairways.

Landscape designers and contractors recommend stone stairways and coping more than poured concrete because stone is often preferred by homeowners thanks to the natural, attractive appearance and the myriad options available to bring their vision for the perfect outdoor living space to life.

Coping is a flat stone used in your hardscaping design that “caps” the top of a garden, retaining wall, stone steps, or pool side. Typically, it is designed to hide the structural parts of the stone wall, raised steps, or edge of a pool, to keep water and debris out, and create a sleek, seamless design feature.

Finishing the look of your stone steps or walls in your hardscape design isn’t complete until you’ve incorporated coping. Whether concrete or natural stone, your options to complete your sophisticated modern aesthetic or natural look and feel is lifted with the incorporation of caping.

We often think of stone steps as a way to connect a walkway to our front door, or a safe and easy way to navigate a slope in the back yard. Today’s modern outdoor design has expanded the ways we can incorporate stone steps and coping to create visually stunning experiences, while remaining highly function and useful.

Building in levels to your backyard landscaping and connecting those levels with one or two steps, or many steps, allows you experience a texture in the landscaping you simply can’t achieve with a flattened vista. If you’re planning to freshen up your outdoor living space, front entrance or patio and pool areas, stone steps and coping could be an easy way to update your space. The best part? Stone steps and coping are low-maintenance, and don’t always need to be designed in a straight line.

Check out these 7 ways to incorporate stone steps into your new landscaping project:

Floating Steps In Pools

When incorporating or updating the landscaping around your pool, floating steps in your landscape design can help you create a sense of continuity. Elegant and functional, floating stone steps into your pool are an inspired choice.

Looking for something a little different? Use large slabs as stepping stones to connect different sides of your pool or interlock the surrounding landscape to create a seamless look.

A variety of choices in style, colour and materials of stone steps and coping exit for you to choose the perfect accents to your landscape design.

Incorporate natural stone steps into your waterfront design for easy access to the lake at your cottage is a stunning and long-wearing alternative to wood or gravel. Combine your stone steps with a commentary natural stone pathway that leads from your home to the water seamlessly. A clear path and well defined stone steps can make it safer, and more visually appealing.

Designing in natural-looking outdoor stone stairs with large pre-cut concrete steps such as the Röcka or Maya outdoor stone steps, can help you create an elegant pathway regardless of the terrain you and your family may have to navigate. Pre-cut concrete steps provide a wonderfully wide walking surface that is stable, even and can be customized in a variety of colors to blend perfectly with your natural surroundings.

For stone steps on a flat surfaces, the Blu Grande Smooth slabs are a perfect paving slab for modern pool sides and backyard design. Their smooth texture is sleek and stylish, but have a slightly textured finish to keep them from getting slippery under wet feet and hands.

For more intimate patio or pool spaces, consider a smaller slab, like the Industria line.

Let the terrain and texture of your outdoor living space dictate your design! Consider following the natural line of water running down a hill as the inspiration for your next stone steps project. Reinvent the look of your garden steps or patio steps by opting for a look that stands out from the ordinary. Offset or meandering stone steps can be a fantastic idea if you want your hardscaping to blend in more naturally to the surrounding softscape, plants and shrubs.

If you have multiple levels to manage and a landscape design that support it, offset or meandering stone step hardscape can be seamlessly fit into your backyard.

Don’t think your stone steps need to disappear into the landscape surrounding them. Absolutely not! In addition to being safe and navigable at night, incorporating subtle or stand-out lighting into your stone steps can become a dramatic statement in your outdoor living space.

Lighting makes the texture and colour of your stone steps come alive at night, not to mention showcasing the drama is not only practical and increases safety at night, but it allows you to showcase your landscape design after dark! These are perfect to outline your path back to your house for guests and add that fancy touch to any space. These can look great on your front entrance steps, garden steps, or patio steps.

Creating a unique and personal outdoor living space that is all yours to enjoy comes with so many options these days that you are only ever limited by your imagination and budget.

Incorporating stone steps into your design doesn’t limit you to hardscaping elements alone. In fact, our modern aesthetic and advances in hardscaping technology allows for a mixing and matching of soft and hardscape elements.

If your outdoor landscape design already includes a lot of greenery and plants, or if you’d like to enhance your sleek modern design with texture and natural elegance, incorporating patches of grass into your steps is an option you should consider. This unique look and feel provides the benefit of preserving that green expanse, while adding fluid functionality from natural to hardscape elements. It’s a beautiful touch of warm elegance your stone steps and caping design while preserving a modern environment.

Both traditional and modern landscaping designs can incorporate large stone steps in any area you want to define and create a sleek hardscaping element. Large stepping stones, separated by small gravel or grass, can be easily added to any outdoor space, and customized to fit any style. The Blu Grande large patio slabs can be easily employed to create a meandering or linear stone steps in any yard. In a variety of colours ranging from Chestnut Brown to Sandlewood, and Shale Grey to Champlain Grey, these patio stones do double duty as stepping stones.

Large platform natural stone steps and slabs are the perfect hardscape element to create a dramatic, majestic effect for your home’s entrance or backyard living area. Using the right stone steps and slabs together with a similar style capping can help you achieve a unified vision across your entire space. Your front entrance can seamlessly transition into softscape elements in both the front and backyard landscaping design to complete your home’s exterior look.

The sleek, modern Raffinato concrete steps will not stain or crack in extreme temperatures, and offer a refined look for modern designed stone steps.