• Coloring concrete can add a playful and innovative touch to your home or play area. The wide palette of colors available and application techniques can make just about any color scheme or pattern possible. There are three ways to color concrete: stains, dyes and colored pigments. Each has its pluses and drawbacks. Applying a finish takes a little more work but offers more variety; pigments give a more uniform look.
  
  

Acid Stains

• Acid stains have a limited palette of colors but etch permanently into the concrete and will not fade or peel over time. Their variety is limited to muted earth tones such as terra cotta and shades of brown and aquamarine. The stain, composed of hydrochloric acid, water and acid-soluble metallic salts, soaks into the concrete's surface when it reacts with the hydrated lime in the concrete. The color created will vary slightly among slabs of concrete, depending on the quality of the concrete's surface. This lends a rustic and natural look to your sidewalk. Stains without acid create a more reliable color because there is no chemical reaction; they are also considered safer and more earth friendly. These stains come in a wider variety of colors and can even be blended like paints to produce a wider palette of colors.
  
  

Dyes

• Dyes open up the possibility of more colors than stains. They can be applied before stains to make the colors bolder or used alone on concrete's surface. Tiny particles filtering through the concrete's surface, not chemicals, give dyed concrete its color. This gives you a more consistent color than a stain. Different shades of dyes can be achieved by diluting or mixing the colors. Apply the dye over large areas with a low-pressure sprayer or get on your knees and apply with a rag or brush to create patterns.
  
  

Colored Concrete

• Pouring pigments into concrete as it is mixed creates colored concrete. The pigments are mined from the ground and refined in a factory to a granular, powder or liquid form. The pigment particles attach to the cement particles because they are 10 times smaller. A consistent water to concrete ratio is the key to creating a uniform color on all concrete slabs. Too much water lightens the color; less water produces the opposite effect.