How To DIY The Best Artificial Grass Paver Patio

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Instantly boost your home’s curb appeal with the best artificial grass paver patio design! This front yard has come a long way since we moved in. Over the last two summers, we removed a tree, a bush, and an awkwardly placed, brick flower bed – replaced it with a concrete slab! We used a sod cutter to cut back half of our natural grass so we could re-grade it to slope away from the house. And, we laid down these concrete pavers to make a paver patio and walkway to increase the functionality and decrease the maintenance of this outdoor area. Low maintenance is the name of the game in this busy season of life for us right now! This paver design was also a relatively simple and cost effective way for us to extend our patio space to provide more seating room for evening chats with neighbors and supervising play in the cul-de-sac.

yellow, two story house with red trim and shutters. Junk all over the porch. dead grass. — Yes, this before picture is from Zillow because for some silly reason we didn’t take any before pictures of our yards.

My original vision was to have pretty ground cover growing between the modern design of these pavers. I planted some in the walkway last year but they did not survive the winter. I went back and fourth a lot about what to do next. I narrowed it down to either rock or artificial turf – you can read about my top 5 best boarder materials to use in and around pavers if you’d like more information on how I narrowed it down! I really wanted to test out the artificial turf so here we are! There are several places you can find artificial grass (turf, same thing) and for decent prices as well. Home depot has a selection of different turf options. So does, Lowes. I stumbled upon the best artificial grass at Sam’s Club of all places. It is by far the thickest, tallest, SOFTEST (perfect for bare feet), most realistic option I found. Because this turf is going to sit next to real grass I was worried about it looking too fake or being too green next to our dry, Colorado grass. But the turf from Sam’s actually has the most brown, “dry” pieces mixed in which makes it look much more realistic in my opinion. I think the next best option was this one from Home Depot.

Materials Used

Paver base
Artificial grass
Turf tape
5.5 in Steel nails
Turf infill
Carpet Sheers
Tape measure
Scrap 2×4
Hammer
Hand brush (this one makes the project, I swear)

Step 1: Plan your cuts before purchasing your artificial turf

PLEASE PAY ATTENTION TO THIS!! Before you purchase your artificial turf, it is SUPER IMPORTANT to plan out your cuts for two reasons: 1) you don’t buy more turf than you need and 2) you want to make sure ALL OF YOUR BLADES ARE GOING IN THE SAME DIRECTION. Jeez, does it seem like I’m yelling at you? I promise I’m not but I don’t want you to skip over this! So, on a piece of paper, map out all of your cuts on a pretend piece of turf to determine how much you need to buy in order to make all of the cuts with the blades going in the same direction.

Step 2: Lay down paver base between the concrete pavers

Before you lay down the paver base, it is important to decide how high you want the turf blades to be in relation to the pavers. I wanted the blades to sit about 1/2 to 3/4 inches above the pavers. As I was pouring the paver base between the pavers I made it level with the pavers.

square pavers with loose paver base poured between them

Step 3: Tamp down paver base

The reason I made the loose paver base level with the pavers to start is because in this step you’re going to tamp it down making a solid, level base to lay the turf on. I used a scrap piece of 2×4 wood to tamp down the paver base. This made the paver base about 1/4 inch lower than the pavers.

using a 2x4 to compress the loose paver base

compressed paver base 1/4 inch below the paver top

Step 4: Cut artificial turf

Not going to lie, I was not excited for this step. I thought it was going to take forever but much to my surprise it went very quickly! A good pair of carpet sheers made this super easy. As I mentioned earlier, PAY ATTENTION TO THIS . . . make sure you cut your pieces so that ALL of the blades are going in the same direction!! It’s going to look really funny and obviously fake if you have blades facing different directions.

using carpet sheers to cut the artificial grass

Step 5: Artificial turf installation

Once I had each piece cut, I laid them all out between the pavers and made any small adjustments as needed.

laying out the strips of artificial grass between the pavers

Step 6: Secure seams with tape

This step is optional, really, but because I had so many seams and this area of the yard gets hit hard with wind at times I thought it would be wise. I used turf tape to secure each seam together. I cut long strips off the role and secured it to the underside of each junction.

Step 7: Secure artificial turf with nails

In order to keep the turf in place you must secure it down with nails. I opted for 5.5 inch steel nails with a decent head size. Don’t worry, the turf blades hide the nail head completely. I put a nail about every 12 inches and on the end of every strip.

Step 8: Lay down the infill

In order to make your turf blades stand up right and not lay down flat you need to pour infill on the turf. I just used my hand and scooped it on the turf while holding the blades up with my other hand. Then, I rubbed them down into the base of the blades using a hand brush. I actually stumbled into this genius idea because I needed to kill a very large and freaky spider so I quickly grabbed the closest thing which just so happened to be my car ice scraper (kids, man). I guess I should be grateful to that freaky spider because after my heart rate came down, I realized I could use the brush on the other end of the scraper to push the infill down into the turf – this was far more effective and much faster!! Any bristles would probably work so save your back and just use a broom lol

While this project has taken much longer than originally planned, the final result turned out better than I hoped! The best artificial grass paver patios offer the perfect blend of functionality, aesthetics and minimal maintenance. It is a great way to extend your existing patio and boost your home’s curb appeal.

white house with light grey trim, dark green natural grass lawn, paver walkway down the side of the driveway leading to the mailbox. paver patio off the front of the house.

The before again, just in case you forgot how atrocious it was (and because I know you’re not going to scroll all the way back up to the top to see it).

Can you believe that transformation??? It’s so fun to see all of the hard work starting to come together! Next thing on the list: flowers! Since I have finally completed my flower research and know which flowers will not die instantly in the dry, Colorado climate, I’m ready to plant some flowers under the mailbox (did you notice my photoshop job, lol). Also, I’d love to put shutters back on the windows – a very controversial topic around here – but I’m being so indecisive so it hasn’t happened yet. Coming soon though!

Here’s a few more pictures of the final paver patio and walkway with artificial grass because it’s too pretty not to share!