Since patio furniture comes in all sizes you might want to measure what you are purchasing, including the chairs and lay it out where you want the patio which should include 2 feet from the back of the chairs for walking room then mark it. Mixing sod and concrete is asking for more trouble from the construction to the finished product, but if you want to play chess or checkers, so be it. Whomever said circles cannot intrude unpon angles?

Here is a link that might be useful: Propagating Perennials

bullthistle, thanks for the tip on the patio sizing. What is it about mixing strips of sod and concrete that causes trouble?

Lots of forms, more labor, and when you are all done lots and lots of edging. I remember this was popular in the early 60's with "modern" arch. design. Looks cool with the right kind of house, which sounds like you have. Check out old landscape magazines from that era for ideas.

You should allow a square of at least 12' on each side for the comfortable positioning of a table and chairs for 6. Larger surfaces tend to feel more relaxing/less cramped than smaller, so keep that in mind. And for stability and safety, this should be all concrete - inserting patches of sod into this area wreaks havoc with chair and table legs sinking into the softer material. A possible alternative is some sort of turf grid, but placement of the furniture legs with this type of material will still present problems.

Depending on how it was designed and constructed - levels being a primary concern - I see no more maintenance from adjoining sod to a concrete pad in multiples than if done singley, as is often the case. Rather than having patches of sod interspersed among the concrete, it may make more sense and present a better aesthetic to connect the concrete pads in some fashion through the sodded area, like one would with smaller concrete pavers.

um, black concrete decks? do you have to wear asbestos slippers or do you go out only after dark? :-)
well anyway. maybe you can substitute something of similar effect for the lawn squares. glass tile? (but not overly bright or flashy, and not necessarily green). visually the tile will add more of a "griddy" look, so may want a simpler alternating layout instead of checkerboard layout.

you can maybe attain similar balance of greenery vs hardscape by other methods, tho (e.g.) using pots (presumably rectangular, perhaps shallow) would visually break the "ground plane" while grass squares would not. checkerboard of ponds would be hazardous, imo. plus the install costs (as mentioned above) would still be higher.

the funny thing about modern is that there's a very fine (esthetic) zone between "clean" and boring.

the problem of table, chair legs (feet) sinking despite "grasscells"... one way to prevent this could be to use furniture that has continuous "pipe" (don't know the term for this, so see it in this pic:)
http://www.volusiapatio.com/pvc/patiochairgliderBIG.jpg
swivel has circle base: http://www.alu-mont.com/images/Century-4600.jpg
or a little bulkier:
http://cache.gizmodo.com/assets/resources/2006/11/Tank%20Chair.jpg
:-)

but being restricted to only that type legs will horribly limit your choice of purchasable furniture.

btw, the peril of indiscriminate photoshopping:
http://www.alu-mont.com/images/Rio-4800-Sling-Series.jpg