How to marry pavers, existing pre-treated wood flooring & house color?

last year

Our current project is to install a 5'x7' outdoor sauna in an existing area that previously housed three large rhododendrons. We were able to successfully transplant them in another area, open up a grid wall which gave access to this area but left sort of a hodgepodge of floor materials.

As you can see by the photographs the walkway to the sauna was/is an extension from the garage for storage etc. We are "cleaning up" this area as best we can but are left with how to best marry the various floorings. We are using pavers in the new area that will house the sauna. These pavers will butt up to the existing pre-treated wood flooring that we retaining. While we'd love to replace the wood, it is not in our budget. The wood flooring butts up to slate tile on the other side.

The house, pavers and slate have both a touch of brown and gray. My question is which color would you pull out to give a harmonious feel. I don't want to stop the eye but have it feel continuous as best I can. What color family of solid wood stain would you suggest I use?

Thank you for taking time to review and comment on my project. I appreciate it!

Featured Answer

Cindi Keller
Original Author

last year

Thank you everyone. Sorry my explanation wasn't clear. The dirt area will be all new pavers. It's the wood area that is my question; what color family should I lean into for the the solid stain? What I have gleaned from your answers is that I need to select another paver, one that is darker. In doing so the the wood stain color will be closer to both the new pavers and the existing slate.

The pavers shown, 6x9, are the same color, Rainer and are a Belgard product. I was trying to show both color and pattern (Herringbone) for this small area. Do you believe I should go with a larger format paver and use a different pattern? It's a small area, 100 sq. feet.

I'm a big fan of Trumpkin and I agree with each point your have made. Thank you for mentioning him as you never know what you don't know. Like you I encourage anyone who is investing in a sauna to read his notes and test out different sauna, thank you!

The Houzz community is awesome. I always glean something new and important each time I post a dilemma. I am grateful!

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Comments (6)

Lyn Nielson
last year
what are the new pavers? use one material, why can't you use slate tiles?
Cindi Keller thanked Lyn Nielson
PRO
Diana Bier Interiors, LLC
last year
Having the three different flooring materials in that small a space will most definitely stop your eye. Either continue the wood or use the same slate as in the other room.

Looking at the pavers, it's difficult to figure out how many different choices you posted--three of them look the same and one looks different. Is that correct?
Cindi Keller thanked Diana Bier Interiors, LLC
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dan1888
last year
Sauna says relaxing. To me I'd like the quieting effect of darkening of the area. You have some of that with the color tone of the existing slate. I'd choose the new flooring in a close match to the black slate. Same material or pavers or other material in a dark tone. If dark pavers aren't possible I'd move to a different material or paver source. In my area a supplier has Slate and Jet Black options. I'd also consider larger square and rectangular options like Belgard Porcelain pavers. Link.
Cindi Keller thanked dan1888
opaone
last year
last modified: last year
Top priority is that you want to make sure that whatever you do is not slippery. Wet feet can slip easy, wet sweaty feet are worse. Second is foot warmth (avoiding cold surfaces).

Your current slate, which would have been my first aesthetic choice, looks like it could be too slippery and will certainlly be cold for bare wet feet.

If the existing wood is not slippery to walk on with wet feet, then I would pour a drainable concrete slab 4" below the surface of the existing wood and then build removable 4" thick duckboards from the same wood. That will match aesthetically and untreated wood makes for a good and not too cold walking surface.

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A note on your sauna. Many people in North America buy poorly designed saunas, use them for 2 or 3 years, and then tire of them because they're not very enjoyable. Most often because they are too small, the benches are too low and they have poor ventilation.

Make sure the foot bench in your new sauna is above the top of the stones (the most basic element of good sauna design) and that it has good ventilation.

Two good resources:
- Trumpkin's Notes on Building a Sauna
- Secrets of Finnish Sauna Design
Cindi Keller thanked opaone
PRO
Patricia Colwell Consulting
last year
I actually have no idea what you are doing at all. The wood seems to be inside or under cover in a porch the you have pavers next to that it seems in the same area why? IMO you do all the pavers the same and if that requires removing the existing ones to get them all to match that is what you do. IMO the sauna needs a piured concrete pad that can then be covered in the same pavers too and make sure te pad is large enough to allow a step up into the suana .
Cindi Keller thanked Patricia Colwell Consulting