info on using decorative slate chippings

I am anticipating using some form of decorative agregate in my garden- may be slate , may be gravel or even cobbles as we havent decided yet. The area will be in the centre of 2 decked areasand is mainly for visual impact than anything else. The area will be cleared of existing slabs and we are planning to put a membrane down to suppress weeds and to kep agregate from sinking. the edges will be possibly boarded to stop it migrating into other parts of the garden. Is there anything else that we need to do? My husband wanted white chippings at first but i have pursuaded him that these will just get green with algea over time and possibly we are now looking at darker colours!If anyone has used this type of thing I would like to hear from them

 

I put down gravel over a largish area, over a membrane. I looked at coloured chippings, but decided against it, and am very pleased I did. I finally bought 20 mil gravel from a builder's yard, which is cheap.

In my opinion, coloured chippings is like a plain carpet. It will show every bit of dirt. My gravel gets broken bits of dried leaf imbedded in it, bits of mulch tossed out every day by the birds from the border, and bits of compost or earth dropped on it, as well as stones from elsewhere. I do tidy it up occasionally, but you can't clean it like a carpet. Even so it always looks good.