A Case of the Blues

To make a standout yard with ordinary materials, sometimes you just need to add color. This bold move to use blue concrete will cost you more than regular concrete, but the payoff is big. There are a couple of ways to add color to concrete — staining, painting or adding a liquid/powder agent to wet concrete mix. This integral graphite blue was achieved by the latter method. The benefit of this method is that if the concrete chips or cracks, it will still be blue. A sealer helps stabilize the color, but you should expect slight fading over the years. A blue-trimmed dining set and blue-gray rocks at the base of a fountain carry the color theme, while a redwood deck and wall (stained to deepen the wood tones) offer a warm contrast.