One can never have too many water features in a garden!  That being said, I should cop to the fact that mine has seven!  At that point however, my husband said enough is enough so in lieu of purchasing another column stone that would have been several thousand dollars I found the perfect solution staring me in the face!  I was working with Graeme, my Austrailian friend who was painting the inside of the 80 foot fountain I designed with black sealant. I was lamenting the fact that I just needed the fountain’s focal point, and then we’d be done.  I was describing with my hand, ” I just need something about this high and this wide” and BOOM it hit me as I realized that I was staring at my old water treatment tank that was bound for the dump!  It had a hole running through it that allowed water flow, so I said to Graeme “Let’s use this!!!!!!!!”

I had him paint it with the same black paint with sand added for texture. Next, he installed it in it’s permanent location and we let it cure for a few days in the hot summer sun. Next, I scavenged my garage cabinet holding my stash of faux paint, spray paint, any paint! I literally sprayed, dumped and globbed onto the tank everything I had that resembled a natural stone color or mineral shimmer!  Some were copper, bronze, mother of pearl, black, gold, silver and several shades of brown.  It took me about 10 minutes to have my way with the tank!  The result is my “faux column stone” that didn’t end up adding to a land fill site.  After a while because I don’t use chlorine in my fountains due to the fact that I like the moss build up and dark bottom (which makes it reflective like a mirror and the chlorine would be unhealthy for the birds and  my dogs that drink from the fountains not to mention it would mean a death sentence for my 100 goldfish and snails) it has acquired an aged patina!