The peaceful sound of a babbling brook or a softly falling waterfall can have immediate calming effects on our bodies, minds, and souls. Even if you don’t live near naturally flowing water or in a forest glen with these calming sounds, you can create your own waterfall oasis by either purchasing pricey manufactured fountains and waterfalls or by making your own at home. It’s amazing what you can do by gathering a few tools and referencing these diy water feature ideas – you’ll soon be basking in your own spa-like garden, bedroom, or living area.
24 Crystal Clear and Calming DIY Water Feature Ideas for Outdoor Beauty
You may have some of the resources you need tucked away in your basement or garage to create your own zen space. That’s the best part about these diy water feature ideas; if you have empty pots, basins, extra river rock, lying around from past projects you can easily put them to use and turn them into a soothing oasis that not only sounds pleasant but is also a nice accent to your outdoor patio or indoor space.
With a little bit of time and some items gathered from this diy water feature ideas list, you’ll be on your way to spa-like bliss after you just add water!
1. Simple Potted Bubble Fountain
Few things are more soothing than the sound of a simple fountain, so consider this simple bubbler made of two textured pots, the smaller one set within the other, tubing, gravel and a pump. The water bubbles up and falls down. After a stressful day pull up a chair by this fountain and enjoy a tall glass of iced tea.
2. Rustic Window Pane Falling Water Feature
Keep cool with this unusual water feature is made of an old window pane fitted at the top with a perforated tube. The falling water resembles corrugated glass except you can put their hands through it and the sensation of cool, falling water provides pleasure for kids of all ages. Install uplights in the gravel-filled reservoir at the bottom to illuminate the wall of water at night.
3. Tippy Tea Pot and Wooden Barrel Fountain
The is one of those whimsical water features that will make a visitor wonder how it was done. You may even wonder how it was done after you install it. In this fountain, water pours through an old repurposed teapot into a shallow bowl, then into a barrel. Plant hostas and arrange pots of bizzie lizzies around this feature to make this corner of the garden the place to be.
4. Beautiful Bamboo Trickling Waterfall Basin
Influenced by the simple fountains found in Japanese gardens, this water feature uses a length of bamboo supported on two narrower lengths of bamboo to gently trickle water into a ceramic basin filled with gravel. Placed near a matching ceramic pot filled with juniper, this fountain surrounds itself with a zone of peace that you and your friends and family will visit again and again.
5. Underground Water System Fountain
This buried fountain takes a bit of work to set up, but once it is installed and working it will be an irresistible lure to family and friends. It is a simple fountain in the center of a bed of river stones. Make it even lovelier by planting ornamental grasses, prostrate shrubs, small boulders and the pastel-colored flowers of your choice.
7. Overflowing Ceramic Pot Fountain
Dramatic but simple, the water in this fountain leaps up from the spigot and bubbles in a big glazed ceramic pot before it overflows. The water hugs the outside of the pot before it disappears into the gravel reservoir, and running your fingers over the pot brings the tactile pleasure of cool water and smooth ceramic. This fountain is bound to be the focal point of your garden.
8. Pretty Little Pail Fountain
The water in this fountain burbles up from a little pot that is filled with gravel and is quite easy to assemble. One nice touch is to add bits of sea glass among the gravel for little pops of color. For balance, place the pot in the garden next to a plant in a glazed, ceramic pot.
9. Mini Oasis with Waterfall Water Feature
Relax to the sound of a small waterfall in your garden. You create this one of tiers of rough-hewn stone built around a reservoir with a long “keystone” used for water distribution. Soften the fountain’s stones by planting prostrate plants around them as well as brightly colored flowers such as chrysanthemums, zinnias, and lazy susans.
10. Nested Ceramic Pots with Fountain Feature
Doesn’t blue glaze around the tops of these ceramic pots makes you think of water? When you install this water feature, the real water spouts from the smaller pot and overflows into the larger one, which is filled with colorful gravel. Place this fountain on the patio or backyard deck as well as the garden.
11. Cascading Copper Wall Waterfall
Use a simple sheet of copper to assemble this attention-getting fountain. Like the other water wall, the water flows down it from a perforated pipe into a reservoir. The simplicity of this water feature refreshes the eye if your garden is especially busy, and it can serve as a focal point if your lawn is unadorned.
12. Fun and Fancy Free Wheelbarrow Waterfall
Another playful fountain is one made out of boulders, gravel, and a wheelbarrow. This red wheelbarrow is tipped in a way that makes your guests think that it’s building its own reservoir. Instead of rocks, water flows down in a cascade. This is a great way for you to repurpose a wheelbarrow that’s seen better days.
13. Babbling and Bubbling Brook in Tiered Pots
The babbling sound made by the flowing water in this tiered fountain is a refreshment, especially on a hot day. You make it of tiers of terra cotta colored pots. The lower three have rims over which the water playfully slips until it reaches the reservoir. If you want to hide the reservoir, plant some bright green ferns.
14. Loop de Loo Waterfall Chain
Chain fountains have always encouraged meditation in some people, especially when they hang from eaves overlooking a Zen garden. You’ll find they are as calming and interesting in the winter as they are in the spring and summer, for the water that pours between the chain freezes solid.
15. Incredible Stacked Rock Statue Water Feature
Visitors may wonder how you got these flat rocks to keep from topping over as water cascades down them. The secret is to drill holes — you’ll need a heavy-duty drill for this job, admittedly — through the rocks and stack them on top of each other like pancakes. Pleasure is had not just in the sound of the water but in the way the light strikes the wet stone.
16. Peaceful and Elegant Ceramic Urn Water Feature
A lovely, large urn made of glazed ceramic is just right for a neglected corner of your garden. Surround it with boulders and paving stones and plant prostrate plants, including bright pink bizzie lizzies, around it. If you have a plain fence nearby, the urn enhances the look of it as well.
17. Treasury of Rocks and Bobbles Stacked Pail Fountain
The way running water makes colorful rocks and pebbles glisten is a joy, and you can embellish this fountain by filling its two metal containers with stones so colorful that some might qualify as semi-precious gems. Add a large blue bobble to make a dramatic statement.
18. Vineyard Inspired Barrel Fountain
If you’re a wine lover, consider this imaginative fountain made of an old wine bottle and a wine barrel placed inside a reservoir. Conceal the reservoir with pretty ceramic Victorian planters filled with exotic plants such as Norfolk island pine.
19. Whimsical Floating Watering Cans Water Feature
A variation on the watering can fountain, this fountain features one old-fashioned watering can emptying into another which empties into an old washtub. One trick is to attach the watering cans so cleverly to your fence that they really do seem to float. It will happily befuddle your friends. If the scenario is a bit too gray, add bright green and cream of hostas and the green ornamental grasses.
20. Basic but Beautiful Terra Cotta Pot Fountain
20. Hide the bubbling spray of a simple terra cotta pot fountain with plantings of pink polka dot plants and petunias. Even though the pot is surprisingly large, its placement probably means that the visitor to your garden will hear the water before they see the fountain. Soon enough, they’ll discover a lovely surprise.
21. My Ceramic Pot Overfloweth Water Feature
Another big, glazed ceramic pot overflows with sheets of water in this water feature, which pleases the senses of touch, sight, and sound. Install the gravel and pebble-covered reservoir on a pad of concrete among mulch and before a planting of ornamental grasses. Place two round spotlights nearby to light up the fountain in the evening.
22. Water Tumbling Down the Wall Fun Feature
This cheery, cheeky fountain can almost be thought of as a steampunk version of the bamboo fountain. It’s also a wall fountain, and you’ll have the water flowing from a watering can into a pipe into another pipe into a downspout into a bucket. It then flows through the bucket’s spigot into another pipe and finally into a washtub filled with aquatic plants. Use grandma’s old galvanized metal containers.
23. River Rock Mini Fountain
Smoothed out from centuries of being pushed and pulled and tumbled by rushing water, river rocks are an ideal material to fill the reservoir of any fountain. The trick to this is to arrange these dozens of rocks in a way that looks artless as if your fountain has been there all along.
24. Big and Beautiful Planting Pots Fountain
Two capacious planting pots, both shades of celadon green with brown rims, make up this simple fountain. You’ll need to dig a hole to place the reservoir beneath the ground, and you’ll balance the bulk of the larger pot by placing smooth, light gray boulders around it. A bright green vine attached to a trellis behind the fountain adds softness.
