Are you going to use the front part of the drive as a parking area? I'm visualising...will the side and back yard be fenced, or will the front yard be fenced too? If you're fencing the back half of the driveway off, and don't want to remove the concrete, because someday you or future owners will want the whole driveway again, You could put a long box planter in front of the fence on the driveway, actually, let it be a bit longer than the driveway's width in order to disguise what you're doing a bit better. You should plant some smaller sized evergreens in it, you can leave room for some flowers or vines to trail up over the fence.
I've stained my concrete side porch and my front steps to look like brick. I've had people standing right on them and not even notice they weren't really brick. I made a stain from regular acrylic/latex paints, but driveways tend to have residue on them and my kind of treatment might not stick everywhere. There are concrete prep formulas and stains out there that you could try. If you did stain it, I think a sort of flagstone look would probably be best. You could put another long planter on the inside of the fence, if you like, to give your "patio" a nicer look.

I can only answer on the staining concrete part and this is just my experience. It didn't last. I used the cleaner for the product first. I followed every thing they said to a T, but it didn't make a difference. My girlfriend did the same at her house with the same results. I don't remember the name...I might if I heard it again tho.

kennebunker...I'd like to know what brand of product you used! I'd sure like to try it again.

Terry

Thank you, both.

Kennebunker: do you mean you used a stain in such a way that you made an actual pattern that resembled brick? I'm impressed that you've fooled people standing right on it! I'd love to know what you used too. To answer your question, yes, we're planning to fence in our backyard and part of the driveway at the side of our house, with a drive-through gate (mainly for the reason you cited: resale issues), yet still leave some driveway in front.

Terry: How long before the stain didn't last? Sorry to hear that. Did it turn out to look messy? What's the weather like in your part of the country? I'm in NY. I wonder if a stain could hold up in the varying seasons here.

I live in Maine, so outdoor surfaces can get a beating. I did the concrete floor of the porch 6 years ago and had to re-tint part of it last year. The porch is roofed, but does get snow blown all over it and needs to be shoveled on occasion, and it's the main entry into the house. My husband was sure it would wear off quickly and kept saying I'd regret it, but now he's glad I did it and himself suggested I do the front door steps the same way.
What I did on my porch would not work for a driveway, way too much surface for one thing, that's why I suggested nice big flagstones.
For my porch I used those little bottles of acrylic paint you can get at an art or craft store. I blended colors to get the shade of brick I wanted, then thinned the paint with water to turn it into a stain.
Next I cut a large sponge to the size of a brick's surface, more or less. Then I marked out some straight lines across my porch to use as guides so that my bricks wouldn't go higgeldy-piggeldy all over the place. (I'm considered to be a pretty good artist, but I can't draw a straight line for beans, always need rulers, t-squares, etc). I got myself a tray for my stain, lots of newspapers for my mess and paper towels and more newspaper for blotting the excess stain off my sponge "brick".
Before trying any faux technique always practice, practice. The stain can't be too wet or it will "bleed" all over your concrete, and if it's too thick it will look like PAINT.
Start by dampening your sponge with water, squeeze the water out, it should be just DAMP. I poured some of the stain in the tray, not a lot, then dabbed the sponge in it so that the surface was covered with color, then I blotted off the excess on papers. I touched the sponge with bated breath to the concrete and lifted up, voila, a brick sized looking rectangle. I touched the brick to the concrete again, leaving a gap of about 3/8" for the "mortar" between the bricks. You can usually get 3 to 5 bricks from one dabbing in the stain. I did this all over the porch.
Sometimes you may find your stain got a bit too wet, or you pressed the sponge down a tad too hard and you'll get some bleed. Tear off a bit of paper towel and immediately blot and rub off the overbleed. Any little bit of color will not be noticible when you're done. REMEMBER YOU PRACTICED THIS FIRST.
Now comes the really important part. You look down and say, "Well, it does sorta look like brick". When you're done step one, you take your stain and add a bit of color to it. I blended burnt sienna, a red, and a yellow to get the color brick I wanted. I added a bit of another shade of brown, burnt umber, and blended that into my brick color. I next took an inexpensve brush, about 1 1/2" wide and dipped it into my new stain and started to gently brush a bit of the stain onto the "brick" You don't have to be neat about it, the color is not supposed to cover the whole thing. It should sort of just wash over the rectangle here and there. After you've done a few you should see just what I mean. Some bricks I painted over once, some twice, some were twice mainly on one end. It sounds goofy as I write it, but it's what makes it look more real. When I was finished I stood back and re-applied more stain wherever I thought it needed it.
I was tempted to seal it with something like Thompson's waterproof sealer, but when I talked to the paint guy he thought that if I ever did get any water in under the sealer somewhere it would ruin the whole thing, so I left it alone.
When I did the front steps I tried "Patio paint", since it was meant to bear up under the elements, and my porch gets constant inundations of water, snow and ice. The patio paint didn't do as well as my regular acrylic did.
You could adapt my method to flagstones if you feel artistic and want to give it a try. You should prep the surface and use a tough concrete stain, as you'll get a lot of scuffing from bikes and toys alone. You could draw out the stones with a pencil and use a larger brush to apply several layers of slightly different colored stains. You start with your one base color and just apply a bit of another color to it to alter the shade slightly. PRACTICE, PRACTICE, makes perfect.

Kennebunker, silly me, not taking careful note of your user name here--of course you're in Maine!

Thank you for the detailed step-by-step. I've printed it out to keep. If you have pics you can post or email would love to see them! One last question: what kind of surface did you practice this on?

You might want to get a concrete paver to try it. If you decide to do it, start out in some inconspicuous corner. I have to admit I did not do any practice, this stuff just seems to come naturally to me.

It occurs to me that I should mention that some of what I learned about painting on concrete stems from an accidental glopping of paint on a driveway while I was standing on a ladder painting my deck. That's when I learned about cleaning up and how paint acts in varying degrees of wetness. When we built this house I just figured I should apply my natural artistic talent and a bent toward observation into a nicer looking porch floor.

I'm in IL. So lots of snow. The stain was..I don't know how to describe it. It wasn't chipping off, it was just missing in area's. Like it was rubbed off? We did ours on the back patio, facing west, and it had an awning on it. Missing in areas where a chair would be moved in and out to sit, missing in the main path area. It was just weird. I wish I could remember the name. It was specifically for staining concrete. I was expecting "stain", the runny stuff. The directions said you could put it in a tank sprayer and spray it on. It was so thick, it wouldn't come out. You couldn't thin it, per instructions. So, we rolled it on. I went back to the store, making sure I didn't get an "old" can. No, it was the consistency it was supposed to be. kennebunker reminds me also of how we had a cedar sided house. We had to stain it. Using your typical stain. Some sloshed onto the driveway and was/is there to this day! Maybe I just should have used it?

I'm impressed kennebunker! Just using acrylic paints....the "stain" I bought, would have been the consistency of the paint before you thinned it.

Ever seen those "curb appeal" shows? They show people all the time staining the concrete. But they never say how or with what product.

I know what you mean by rubbing off. The paint I used that was meant for patios, for clay pots and what not to be exposed to weather did fade somewhat, the stuff on my porch held up much better.
I took some pictures of the "brick work".
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The risers on the steps were brick originally, but the rest was concrete, so I stained it to match up with the risers and the walk.

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A closeup of the porch brickwork. You can see the bricks are rather mottled in color. That's an important point to the success of the painting.

BEAUTIFUL!!!.. and JUST what I want to do under our second story deck where there is a very large and ugly slab on concrete.. but I think with some of your brick work and some lattice I could have a charming little area! Thanks for posting the photos!

maddiemom

Kennebunker,

That's gorgeous!!! Thank you so much for the photos!

Really inspiring. What an amazing job you did there.

Lots of container plants and an overhead structure for shade would make it look more like a patio.

There are two posts in Garden Accoutrements that have some good pictures and instructions:
Faux Brick Patio
Faux Brick Patio, Phase Two
http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/accout/msg061434087801.html?17

It all looks so nice. I wonder if the stains disappearing was more the concrete layer dusting off?

Here is a link that might be useful: Faux Brick Patio