Backyard stone design ideas can create a fantasy world in the privacy of your own home. Stone is a sturdy, durable and versatile material for use in a variety of styles. From flagstone pathways to carved sandstone statues, you can incorporate stone into almost any backyard feature, including benches, tables, fountains, walls, staircases, fireplaces and sculptures.

Contemporary Stone Design Ideas
Use clean and sharp lines to create a contemporary stone design in your backyard. Create a square patio with rectangle bricks of light and dark granite. Add light granite, rectangle planters spaced evenly around the patio. Build a sleek rectangle fireplace at the front of the patio using dark granite for the base and light granite for a simple mantle.

Scatter some rectangle and square granite planters around the yard and fence. Place a small, square, raised granite pond in one corner of the yard. Build a small granite bench on each side of the pond. Create a light and dark gray granite pathway leading from the pond to the patio.

Country Stone Design Ideas
Stick with a simple rectangle patio and plain path design to create a country style with river rocks. Line the flat patio and path with large, whole river rocks to soften the silhouettes. Use the whole river rocks to edge flower gardens and build stepped gardens. Add white wood furniture and lattice railings to the patio and path as needed.

Earthy Stone Design Ideas
Create a round patio with flagstone tiles in assorted colors to create an earthy backyard design. Add a circle fire pit with a short rim in the middle of the patio. Edge the patio with flowers and bushes. Arrange wood chairs and tables around the patio. Top each table with a flowerpot set on a flagstone tile.

Build a rounded, wandering, flagstone pathway leading from the patio to the back of the yard. Create a small, rounded pad in the back of the yard to serve as a hidden sitting area. Add trees, flowers and bushes around the pathway and pad. Place a wood table and two chairs on the small pad.

Unusual Stone Design Ideas
Use Pennsylvania bluestone to create a sunken, oval patio for an unusual backyard design. Line and build benches in the walls of the sunken patio with a mixture of bluestone and green fieldstone. Use the mixture of stones to cover the stairs out of the patio. Create a small fire pit in the middle of the patio with the fieldstone.

Add bluestone pathways on the left and right side of the patio. The pathways should run near the corresponding outer edge of the yard. Curve the pathways inward about halfway down the yard to meet in the middle. Build a round, sunken pond with bluestone and fieldstone where the paths meet. Stack a pyramid of stones in the middle of the pond to create a waterfall fountain. Use bluestone and fieldstone stacks to edge rounded flower gardens scattered around the yard.