I agree that adding photos will help immensely. Also, what do you want to do with your patio, and what direction does it face? For example, if you want to eat supper out there and it is west facing, you will want some shade to make it useable. How you plan to use it will influence other factors such as size, materials, etc. In the meantime, here is a link with lots of photos of designer patios. Look at them less as a blueprint than with an eye toward what appeals to you: Do you like a simple symmetrical shape or irregular? What materials do you like? Do you like them raised or level with the ground? Will you be planting around it and if so, generally what types of plantings appeal to you? Do you like structures such as walls or trellises, or do you want it more open? What do you need room for: a couple of chairs, a large dining table, a fire pit of some kind, etc? Are you planning yours as a DIY and if so, how much experience do you have, and how much work do you want to take on? For instance, what looks flat may not in fact actually be flat and so may require some evaluation and leveling as well as being sure that precipitation will move away from the house and not toward it. A zone or general area where you live will help also, since some choices will depend on whether or not you need to worry about freezing temperatures, snow removal, huge amounts of rain, etc. Here is a link that might be useful: [Houzz patios[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/patio-ideas-phbr0-bp~t_725)

You need to decide in a couple of hours? Oh my god. Slam on the brakes and have your contractor - the person you're paying for an awesome result - run through all your options with you. If that includes standing in the yard for half a day with a case of spray paint and string lines so you can visualize things, that's what has to happen. If your contractor isn't capable of that, find a good landscape designer and pay him or her whatever it's going to take to get out there asap, and no one touches a shovel till then. There is no reason why a professional ANYTHING should leave their client in a situation where they're looking for help from online strangers at the 11th hour. You should not be in this position. There are two phases in every project, a design phase and a construction phase. You can't skip phase one. I'm pretty irked on your behalf.

You are proposing solutions which impose many constraints, but without identifying needs and objectives. It would be better to begin with a list of objectives, starting with the biggest ones first, that don't propose any solutions at all. Let minds here explore possibilities without being constrained beforehand. Then, you'd need to show us what's there. As Babs said, a plan view would help a lot. [BTW, regardless of whatever ideas you end up with, they will need to be converted into a plan view in order to be understood and implemented. Creating a base plan -- which shows all the existing features that will remain: house, pool, landscape bed, walks, slope, drive, etc. -- would be the first thing that a landscape architect or designer would do, as soon as they collected measurements and basic information about your project. Anyone looking at the plan would instantly see the size of everything and how far it is from everything else. Not having a base plan would create a great obstacle to being able to "visualize anything."] Continue on with "showing what's there," you need to supply better pictures so the features of the space can be understood by people who will never have the opportunity to visit it in real life. For this project, you'd need essentially two panoramic batteries of photographs as a starting point. The first battery would be taken from standing just outside with the sliding glass doors at your back. You'd aim camera to the far left (toward the garage) such that the left wall of the house is showing at the left side of the frame. Then you'd pivot rightward to take the next photograph that OVERLAPS SLIGHTLY with the first. You'd continue pivoting and taking slightly overlapping photographs until the camera catches the right wall of the house. It's probably going to be about 6 photos. Post them here. Don't try to substitute a computer or camera generated panorama as the picture will be too small for anyone to see detail. For the second battery of photographs, you'd again stay in line with the patio doors (because they are central to your house and therefore, the scene) and walk across to the other side of the pool, and into the grass about 5 or 6'. Now face the house. Take another panoramic set of slightly overlapping photos that span from the far left to far right (180*) so that we can see the entire scene of what is at the left, right and beyond each end of the pool including the backdrop, which is the house. Hopefully, with all of these photos, we could understand what's in the vicinity of all side of the pool. With all of this accurate information in conjunction with your objectives, you can probably get some good feedback.

I have not used charcoal grey or brown stains. Blues and greens do not hold up outside. Have used black and red and it was on concrete that had been surface ground with a carborundum stone grinder. The black was dark and harsh like a fresh hair dye job at first, but then faded over a year's time to a nice taupe grey, and I like it just fine. (I applied it twice and let it set overnight the 2nd time.) The red was orange rust colored and I did not care for it at all. The stains, being watery, spatter easily and stain any masonry object nearby if any gets on it. I don't know how it would stain other materials. I applied it with a broom and got fine splatter mist on nearby masonry. (It does not look horrible but I would have preferred it not happen. Slightly worse, I had areas that ran, bled and pooled into seams between pavers ... and those look like crying after an already bad mascara job.) Something that would mop it on with would probably be better. Mask off anything nearby on which you don't want stain.