First IMO no black top ever . The pic you show is with gravel and blens with it . What you are planning will look cheap and too much contrast . How about showing us your house and the driveway now. That is how you get help before making big mistakes. Big difference between NY and SC for sure as to what works with the climate

That’s a good point. I was thinking that it might be a lot of contrast. our house will look similar in the photos as far as white siding and black windows, but smaller. It’s a small split house.

We can’t do a gravel driveway, but I am up for other suggestions of how to make the driveway look beautiful without paving the whole driveway, which is out of our budget. We do live in New York by the water so it’s important that it extremely durable for the varying temperatures and salt water. This is our driveway now before we start work on the front.

Is your current driveway gravel or asphalt?

Have you looked around your town to see what others are doing with their driveway?

Asphalt driveways with belgian block curbing and aprons (like your photo) are popular in my NE area. Gravel driveways aren’t popular or practical due to snow removal.

Almost all driveways here are asphalt too. I dont think it cheapens the house at all. They actually look very nice.

Cape Cod here. Crushed stone is suggested (sometimes mandatory) for drainage. At the bottom of the drive, you can choose whatever will hold the stone in place. Belgian block is typical.

Can you be more specific about where you are located? As mentioned above, snow removal and temperature extremes are going to impact your choices.

I grew up in the snow belt, asphalt is very common in houses of all price ranges.

You could do a grey asphalt driveway and a grey herringbone brick walkway and front door landing area.

Most driveways in my area of NY (Long Island) near the water are blacktop, so I can't understand why "no blacktop ever." Many homeowners use a belgian block apron and curbing along with the blacktop. We re-used concrete pavers from our patio for our apron and in front of the garage, with blacktop in the center--it looks very nice. It's also easier for snow removal than gravel. Our vacation home on the East End has gravel, as do most homes out there, but we don't use it in winter so snow removal is not an issue.

Here's a couple of photos of my blacktop and paver/belgian block driveway:

We re-used pavers from our old patio, which we redid with bluestone. The pavers are very natural looking, and the gray blends with the belgian block and bluestone. The blacktop is quite a few years old, and was patched last year; we'll probably need to re-do it soon.

Thank you so much for everyones help! I am leaning towards belgium

block and seeing if they can lay it in this herringbone shape! we are on long island too in merrick by the water so weather durability is important and we are not the best at upkeep! we are redoing the facade white hardie siding and black windows and i think this would look nice!

Wondering what grey asphalt looks like?