Pea Gravel Patio Ideas: A Weekend DIY

Pea gravel patio ideas you can DIY in just two days to enhance your outdoor spaces. Protect your lawn and add ambiance with this easy DIY summer project.

Small Gravel Patio Ideas

We bought this outdoor teak table dining set a couple of years ago and have enjoyed it so much in our backyard. Unfortunately, our lawn didn’t like it as much as we did. There was now a big bare spot under the table, and the chairs were challenging to move around. Not to mention that we had to shift everything each time we mowed the lawn.

Outdoor Dining Space Before

Until we designed, framed, and came up with these pea gravel patio ideas to lay beneath our backyard table set. I wanted to share our step-by-step design process with you in hopes that it may inspire you to add a little ambiance to your own outdoor spaces.

What Do I Need to Build a Pea Gravel Patio?

This post may contain affiliate links, which won’t change your price but will share some commission.

What is Pea Gravel or Stone? Pea gravel or stone is a top choice and is very versatile, as is standard gravel, crushed stone, river rock, and decomposed granite. And there are many popular choices. The stones are about the size of peas and are a long-lasting solution for walkways, patios, ground cover, flower beds, and other landscaping needs.

You may also be inspired by this How to Create an Outdoor Dining Oasis post.

Pea Gravel Patio Ideas on a Budget

Choosing Your Pea Gravel Patio Design

Choose your space and decide if you want a round, oval, rectangle, square, or whimsical patio based on your own outdoor location.

Mark Out Your Patio Design

Use the driveway stakes to mark out your area and design.

After trying out a few different design shapes with our driveway stakes, we decided that we wanted our pea gravel patio to be oval. It would run up against our whimsical-shaped pea gravel walkway, and with all the straight lines and corners of the house, I felt like a square patio would add too many more straight lines along with the rectangle teak table setting. So, we settled on an oval, circular pea gravel patio design.

Dig Rim Around Patio Markers

Next, we used a garden spade shovel and dug a 2″ rim around the table markers to serve as the perimeter for our small pea gravel patio.

Next, we dug up all the grass within the circular patio we designed and placed it in a wheelbarrow for easy removal.

Here, too, you can easily see how the lawn was completely worn underneath where the teak table sat.

You may also enjoy My First Time Using a Paint Sprayer, What You Need to Know post. And see the raised garden bed painted today with white flowers in it next to our new pea stone patio.

Rake the Patio Area

How to rake a pea gravel patio?

Once the lawn was removed from the patio design, we cleared the area of any rocks and debris with a garden rake. We are trying to make the dirt as even as possible inside our circular pea gravel patio space.

Leveling the Dirt

Once our circular patio space was dug out and raked, it was important to ensure it was level, as we want our teak table setting to lay flat on the pea gravel once it is completed.

This is where the red twine comes in.

Using our driveway markers still, we tied the twine around one of the markers at the top edge of the dirt patio.

Then, pulling it tight, we tied that twine to another driveway marker at the same edge of the patio. We used a magic marker to mark where the twine was tied and did this throughout each marker. The twine should crisscross over the dirt nicely and tightly.

Having two people to do this is helpful, as you want the twine to be nice and tight across.

Then, using a level, we made sure each crossing twine in the dirt patio space was level, and then we raked the dirt again, even to the leveled twine.

After your dirt is leveled, you may remove the driveway markers and twine to lay the landscape edging in preparation next for the weed barrier.

You may also enjoy this Backyard Living: From Design to Reality post.

Pea Gravel Patio Edging Ideas

Install Landscape Edging and Weed Barrier

Now, it’s time to install the landscape edging and weed barrier.

*Update * We later designed a similar pea gravel patio around our stone fire pit and omitted the landscape edging. Which I actually prefer. See more at the bottom of this post.

You can install landscape edging in many ways, from adding pavers, rocks, or bricks around the edging to this simple method of using plastic landscape edging.

We chose to use a simple plastic landscape edging and to install it deep enough into the patio’s dirt edging, so you won’t be able to see it once we add the pea gravel for a clean, simple patio finish.

We dug a moat around the dirt patio to set the landscape edging into. Then, the weed barrier was secured over the dirt to protect the weeds from growing once the pea gravel was in place.

We secured the weed barrier with old landscape staples that we found in our garage. You can also purchase landscape staples at your local hardware store or nursery to secure your weed barrier tarp.

The landscape edging came with its own 6″ staples to secure the patio edging.

Ella, our Bernese Mountain dog, was really enjoying this patio landing while we waited for the pea stone to arrive at her bone-chewing station. Ella has allergies to grass, so this was a new, welcomed addition for her.

So far, the time it took for us to get here was two half days of work or one full day. Now, all that was left to do was to have the pea gravel delivered and level it all into this patio design.

If you planned ahead and had the pea gravel already in hand, which we did not, you could most definitely complete this simple pea-stone patio in one day.

Pea Gravel Patio Ideas in Action:

Wrapping Up the Pea Gravel Patio

Many pea gravel options are available through local landscapers, hardware stores, greenhouses, and even Amazon.

We chose the river rock pea stone, which matches the two walkways that we already have at our home. I love its natural coloring and texture, which it adds to our landscape.

You may also enjoy White & Green Rustic Summer Flower Planters Sure To Charm You post with more outdoor landscaping ideas.

How much does pea gravel or stone cost?

The cost of the pea stone was $61.00 a yard delivered.

How much pea gravel do I need?

We had 3 yards of river rock pea stone delivered from our local nursery. This was what was required for delivery, and we could use any excess on our two walkways. As an FYI, we ended up using only about a quarter of this for our patio.

Pea gravel is also available in bags if you prefer to purchase a number of bags instead of having your stone delivered, as we did.

Then we shoveled a good layer of the river rock pea stone to the top of the patio’s rim that we had earlier prepared.

Ideally, you will want to roll and press the gravel down as tight as you can. We didn’t have anything to roll our pea stone, but the tighter you can press the stone down, the more stabilized it will be.

Lastly, we raked soil around the newly built patio and planted grass seed. The grass will cover up the black landscape edging, leaving a clean round river rock pea stone patio when the grass grows in.

Oh, and we didn’t let a little rain stop us, either…

Find more inspiration in this 9 Back Porch Summer Decorating Ideas post.

I’d love to know what you think. I’ll update this post again, too, once the grass grows in around the edges and when the sun arrives again in Maine…

See more of this finished gravel stone patio here:

Small Pea Gravel Patio Ideas: Fire Pit

We enjoyed this pea gravel patio so much that we later designed one around our stone fire pit. Now, we don’t have to move the heavy Polywood Adirondack Chairs every time we mow the lawn.

In this pea gravel patio design, we forgo the plastic landscape edging. We felt like this space really didn’t need it.

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This post may contain affiliate links, which won’t change your price but will share some commission.