Take Broken Pavers From Trash To Treasure With A Stunning Outdoor Walkway DIY

Even if the pavers you have cannot be used in the way you originally intended, you can still repurpose them to make something even more brilliant. Instead of throwing out broken pavers, it's better to find ways to reuse them, like turning cracked pavers into a gorgeous decor piece for your outdoor space. With a little imagination inspired by the Japanese art of Kintsugi, your old stone, cement, or brick pavers can create a stunning new walkway. Kintsugi means "golden joinery" in Japanese and traditionally involves fixing broken ceramics with gold, silver, and lacquer. This art has been used to make stunning ceramic pieces for centuries, but this DIY idea can also be used to repair an existing crumbling paver path, transforming it into a beautiful outdoor feature again. To accomplish this, you'll take your smashed or crumbling pavers and piece them back together in a loose mosaic pattern. As a nod to kintsugi, use gold-colored cement to seal the pavers together, turning an old path new again. The end result is a restored pathway that looks even more beautiful than it did when brand new.

With the Japanese art of kintsugi, your broken pavers will be transformed into a treasured part of your outdoor space. This art form emphasizes seeing beauty in imperfections and avoiding waste, helping you reimagine what once was unusable and turn it into something refreshed and functional. With this unique outdoor DIY project, you can embrace this philosophy of renewal and minimize waste in your yard, turning throwaway pavers into an eye-catching pathway. 

If you have a paver path in your garden with crumbling stones, repairing it with the kintsugi method can revitalize it. After collecting your broken pavers, dig out your pathway if needed so the paver pieces lay level and flush with the ground. To begin constructing your kintsugi-inspired pathway, you will need to fit together your broken paver pieces like a loose mosaic. Once you have the pavers matched together in your preferred pattern, mix the cement that you'll use to bind the pavers, such as Sakrete's Quikrete Portland Cement. 

The addition of gold to the cement sealant is what makes this project one of the DIY paver projects that will instantly elevate your yard. Of course, to make this budget-friendly, you will not use real gold or gold flakes like you might in traditional kintsugi ceramics. Youtube creator Rob The Frugalist suggests using a glitter paint additive to accomplish this metallic look. Other options to color the cement include powder pigment dye, like this Hemway Metallic Dark Gold Cement Dye Pigment. Pour or scoop the concrete to fill in the gaps and hold your pavers together. A mortar trowel may help to smooth the concrete between each piece. The path should set nicely with a golden hue running through the pavers like a shimmery vein. The resulting look is reminiscent of the gold that holds together broken pieces in traditional kintsugi ceramics. 

For extra sparkle, consider dusting the glitter paint additive on top of the cement while it's still wet. Alternatively, add gold paint over the cement seams after they dry. However, you can also branch out of the original idea and customize your paver path with a different colored cement sealant. Choose a bright color, like yellow or pink, to give a sunny area of your outdoor space a quirky makeover.

Remember that kintsugi is heavily connected to the concept of wabi-sabi, which encourages you to enjoy the beauty in imperfect and aging materials. You can use this kintsugi method to repurpose a pile of unused pavers, but it's even more brilliant for fixing an existing pathway that has fallen into disrepair. For the most accurate kintsugi, focus on using this method when you need to fix a pathway that has a tree root growing underneath or has been damaged by the passage of time. As it beautifies your walkway, this DIY also works to repair the structure in a path that already has a few broken pavers or requires a full replacement. 

Putting a kintsugi-style walkway in your outdoor space can add a lot of character to your landscaping. Your kintsugi walkway should celebrate what once was broken as something wholly new, wonderful, and worthy of contemplation. After building your kintsugi path, get inspired by tranquil Zen gardens for your yard and add other unique details like stone lanterns or a sand meditation garden for a classic Japanese-inspired look.