A highly effective and cost effective way to add color and style to your home is to have one or more colored concrete patios built in various places in your yard. 
Unless you have a purist’s attachment to exclusively natural materials like fine cut stone, concrete can be just as effective, ornament, and enduring for any number of Houston landscape design themes.

If you have a smaller property, for example, a premier location for such a hardscape is around your swimming pool.  Many lots in neighborhoods like West University, parts of Rice Village, Bellaire, and Upper Kirby are relatively small.  Pools here have to be built smaller to appear proportional to the home and yard. 

A colored concrete patio is ideal for a small, custom swimming pool because it can easily poured into any geometry necessary to compliment the pool and the architecture of the home. 
It can be built to emulate any number of materials including brick, flagstone, cobblestone, and natural stone—at much more affordable costs.  This is especially effective when landscaping the backyard of a townhome where very limited space is available. 

Such rich textures and vibrant colors typically create optics that make the entire property look larger than it is.

Landscape architecture, masonry, stone walls, and outdoor buildings can similarly be magnified by a colored concrete patio.
Consider the added curb appeal that is gained from a patterned concrete driveway or motorcourt in front of a house.  Then, transfer that same concept to the back yard.  Adding a stained patio to the front of an  outdoor kitchen, creates an instant attraction factor.  It also provides guests with an additional outdoor seating option.  Such a patio can even be part of the kitchen floor if a more modern or contemporary design of architecture is used.  As such, it becomes a veritable extension of the dining an outdoor living area and blends create comforts with life under the stars and lighted trees.

Courtyards can also be built around colored concrete patios.
Patterns like sundials or radiating lines can spring from the center and become the emanate sources of walkways and paths that lead into custom gardens.  Or, you can have a cobblestone surface, natural stone surface, brick, or even wood design perfectly imitated beneath your feet.

If your courtyard walls feature a high level of professional masonry, then a colored hardscape can be created that matches the patterns of the vertical surface in color, texture, and design

Another great location for such a patio is just outside the door to your master bedroom. 
This will give you and your family a private, special seating area for morning conversation, coffee, and evening sunset watching.   The freedom of design such a patio offers allows for an ideal compliment to any garden design or custom fountain design you choose to add to the scene.  

Perhaps the best place for a colored concrete patio, however, is in a contemporary landscape.
Such hardscapes can be built around outdoor sculptures that extend the geometry of the outdoor art into any number of radii and linear movements. 

There is also an added functional benefit to concrete as well.
It can be rendered slip resistant by brushing its surface into fine line etchings.  From an aesthetic standpoint, these lines look like part of the patterned design.  However, when the surface is wet, they provide extra traction for feet.