I stained the unsealed concrete driveway and walkway at my last house. I wouldn't recommend it for the driveway if you live in a snowy climate. After the first winter of road salt being dragged on by the cars it removed some of the stain and the driveway was all blotchy . I reapplied it the next summer, but it did the same thing. I don't remember the brand, but it wasn't cheap. Now I heard acid staining works good, but you have to be careful applying it.

We poured a 213' long driveway using colored concrete mixed into the concrete when wet. One of the guys we hired to help with the pours dumped a Mountain Dew soda on the wet colored concrete....TWICE! Bicarbonate apparently leaches the color out of colored concrete. I had to stain it topically after it dried to cover up the BIG, 3' x 3' stains. Then I've since colored existing grey concrete with topical stain. I've never tried stenciling. The process I use is too wet, runny to keep a sharp edge and hold a design. Bayer is the brand I used(purchased from a concrete company). I've used Behr(Home Depot) for deck stains and such....never tried their concrete stain.

I'm not staining my driveway, it's asphalt. The walkway and pad out back rarely get even walked on.

I stained our back patio in L.A. along with the pad that the hot tub is on because the white concrete was too blinding in the sun, which we have a lot of. You really need to put a very good sealer on top of it - we did not - but it is still just a surface treatment and will wear off and look splotchy after a few years. For us, that is still better than having blinding white concrete.

Better to pour a new layer of concrete with the stain mixed it over the old concrete.

At this point, we want to cover our patio with pavers or some kind of thin tile that would not be slippery. Our garage in Cathedral City has a concrete flood with an epoxy finish on it, and this is much more durable than surface concrete stain.

I stained this "pad", two years ago. (just the part in front of the door. An egress to the herringbone patio) It hasn't changed. I mixed black chalk and concrete color by Bayer together, then painted it on. Then put concrete sealer on the finished product. But I didn't do a design.....