Concrete, to stain or not to stain...

The pool is almost done and the pergolas are done.  I've been thinking of what color to stain the concrete.  I refuse to have that stuff called Sundeck around the pool, it awful.  I opted for travertine and stained concrete.  Before the pool I intended to do grey for a cool modern look like the inside of the house.  I had not settled on an exact grey.  When I decided to use copper mosaic tile in the pool that changed everything.  I went to the stain store and decided on light brown.  It should be just a little darker than the travertine.  The stain looked dark in the sprayer tank but what do I know, it's my first time doing this.  I start in the area under the hot tub just in case.  OMG it's dark.  Luckily this stain can be lightened with 50% water.  I start staining again and while it's not what I wanted it sort of matches the copper and does look good.  It looks Tuscan which is definitely not what I wanted but it's working.

Notice no curtains on the pergola's.

 

The staining was easy and I had fun creating the random patterns that gives it that sort of marble look.  You can see how much darker it is compared to the travertine but it looks good with the tile.  We bought a shiny "wet look" sealer and that was not fun to do.  First it took 2 of us so that meant my husband and I.  We had a 5 gal can and it was suppose to take all of it.  We managed to do almost all of it without any drama.  Then came the realization we had not done it right and a footprint.  My husbands footprint is there forever.  We only used 1/4 of the 5 gal can so needless to say it will need to be done again this year.  I think hiring that out is wise as we still have to do the rest of the side and the circular driveway in front.  That will be the travertine color.  It finally occurred to me to look at the stain can and I had been given brown instead of light brown.  You can see the difference here.

Light brown is the second from the bottom on the left side.  Brown  is second from the bottom on the right side.  The color we ended up with is 50% of the brown.