I have a massive BRICK colored patio on the back of my 20s Craftsman Foursquare. Added in the early 50s. I think it fits well -- greenery on two sides and it buts up to the brick garage (it is a ways from the house. Here's the best picture I can find, set up for a party we had last October. The plantings are old but not as old as the patio

"I do not want a massive concrete pad that takes over the yard. Would love a natural stone or brick but they aren’t in budget." What is in budget?

As far as how to integrate, a person would need to see the back of the house and the door that connects to the patio. Straight on views are best. Post pictures individually. (The group pics show too small.)

We did scored and stained concrete with a flagstone pattern. Get some bids on that. You will be surprised at how inexpensive it is. You can get brick patterns too and make the stain any color you wish.

Sorry about the orientation, but you get the drift.

Is this any better? The back door opens to the side driveway not the yard.

I love the color of the patio above, that would tie in with the brick of the house and not be as glaring.
The stone I like, Old English Garden is $500 a ton in our area. A ton only covers 20sf so $4000 for materials only. Flagstone is only slightly less. I have yet to see a concrete paver I like. Scored concrete is about $6-9sg installed. I’ve already scheduled more quotes.

Sorry but Houzz won’t allow me to add comments at the end of the thread for some reason-

I like the brick and the faux flagstone options. I’ll talk to the concrete bidders about that look. We have unstained flagstone scored concrete on the front walk.
I’ll have to see about pricing for bricks. From what I can figure out materials alone would be about $1500 but I don’t know how labor costs compare.
I also made a to scale drawing of the yard, pretty rough looking but accurate. Each square is 2ft. The circles represent approximate diameter of existing trees.
We have the dining set under Tree A and really like it. I think it could be a nice placement. Thoughts?

Ugh, Houzz strikes again. It ate my detailed post!
I like the flagstone look concrete and think it’s a good option. I’ll have them quote that as well.
I would like brick and the materials cost wild just be about $1600 but I have to compare labor pricing.
I made a rough but accurate drawing of the yard. Each square is 2 ft. The circles represent approximate diameter of the trees. Right now the dining set is under Tree A. I like it there and think it may be nice placement of the patio. Any thoughts?

Let us know what bids you get. We care!

We have red brick patio with stone paths here at our old craftsman, may give you some ideas? An old broken koi pond which still wondering what direction to take on that where the wall of stone is in the background. Obvious we had to build a new back porch, nothing fancy for we did it ourselves, not pros at all! I still have to stain it but slowly coming together. We have huge pecan trees, lots of shade and work! I’ve recently planted lavender and mint and just pots of stuff just to have more back here. I love our backyard for i can see all this out my kitchen window. Just sharing, maybe you can get some inspiration from my pictures.

And, lol, the red trim is got to go!!! One day!!!

One advantage of bricks (compared to concrete) is that they can be set in sand so rainwater can just go down through the patio and be absorbed into the soil. A concrete surface (or bricks set in concrete for that matter) deprives the soil under it from the water recharge. What's wrong with that? Some plants are negatively affected, and the rainwater runoff can cause problems.

Until a patio is designed -- its location, size, shape and details are determined -- there'd be nothing to get quotes on, and no way to compare one quote to any other. You could only get a budget estimate for a given quoter's ideas.

You're going to need to show the complete backyard in a single, 180* panoramic view. Stand in the middle of the drive, midway between house and garage. Take a series of slightly overlapping photos that pan from left to right (without changing the camera location between pictures. Merely pivot.)

Ugh, Houzz strikes again. It ate my detailed post!
I like the flagstone look concrete and think it’s a good option. I’ll have them quote that as well.
I would like brick and the materials cost wild just be about $1600 but I have to compare labor pricing.
I made a rough but accurate drawing of the yard. Each square is 2 ft. The circles represent approximate diameter of the trees. Right now the dining set is under Tree A. I like it there and think it may be nice placement of the patio. Any thoughts?

Agreed about getting a quote. I can’t really lock down the size or placement or design. Help on all fronts is appreciated!
We will keep the grill outside of the fence on the wide drive and pad since that’s where the back door opens.
The only access to the yard is through the fence.

The drawing is schematic and a little weird to read on account of the distortion. Try to accept that, except for the planting bed cut-out, the lines in real life would be straight.

I'm thinking that it would be good to screen off the AC with some solid paneling in order to help deflect sound, as that is a potentially very annoying thing next to a patio. Also, there's a need to have foundation planting at the house. So there are two reasons not to have the patio too close to it. In the doing of screening the AC, it would be good to include a space to tuck the refuse container(s) out of sight. The patio would be basically a rectangle parallel to the drive, but spaced from it for an opportunity to create some planting around the patio ... for beauty or to further insulate it or create privacy from the drive. Play with the geometry to shrink or expand the patio according to the size needs and budget. But I think having it centrally aligned in some way with the central tree, makes sense.

Yardvarrk- that is so helpful. I hadn’t thought of that placement at all. i love it. It leaves plenty of grass for pets and lounging. When we have larger groups of people we can leave the gate open and add tables to the driveway area.

We are building an enclosure for the AC (I still worry it may be too loud though) and the yard waste can has a storage area on the other, side of the driveway. Had also planned on adding plants along the foundation and outside the fence line. Love beefing up the sad lone little tree!

Ill mark it out this evening to be sure we can easily fit the dining set. With that info we can get firm quotes on concrete, scored concrete, brick or stone.

I love blue stone and slate patios but have seen nice stamped concrete for a fraction of the cost. Here are my inspiration patios I hope to add to my 20s storybook cottage.

I love the moss!

Here is a nice one with lots of variation.

And this third house might even be stamped concert.

We did a tiny 10x10 homedepot paver patio to hold our table by our pool. It cost less than a hundred dollars and serves its purpose and sense it is in our far back and not seen from our house at all I was less concerned about originality.