How to Build a Bamboo Fountain at Home

Bamboo can bring luck and prosperity to your home. It adds a nice touch to Asian decor and fits with the harmonious design principles of Feng Sheui. This project outlines a small, indoor desktop or tabletop fountain, but simply use larger elements to create a large indoor or outdoor fountain. Chose a bowl that complements your decor to make this fountain stand out as a decorative element in the room.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Small fountain pump Decorative bowl River rocks or aquarium gravel Plastic tubing Water-resistant glue Hollow pieces of bamboo Scissors

How to Build a Bamboo Fountain at Home

1. Fit the fountain pump into the bowl. Make sure it has enough room to be covered with rocks. Use a small amount of glue just to tack it into place for now. Make sure the cord comes out of the back of the bowl to be more easily hidden.

2. Take your main, central piece of bamboo and cut it at a 45-degree angle to give you a nice spout.

3. Attach the plastic tubing to the correct hole on the pump. Take your first piece of bamboo and thread this tubing through the center. Use glue to tack the bamboo to the top of the filter, and to tack the tubing inside the bamboo.

4. Use the cut-off piece to create a spout. Drill a hole in the center of it big enough for the tubing to fit through. Sand it down to make it slightly smaller, and insert it into the piece of bamboo at the cut to see if it fits. Continue sanding until the spout fits inside the bamboo, with the rounded tip pointing outward at a 90-degree angle. Once you have sanded it to fit, pull the tubing through the hole and slide the spout into place. Glue everything firmly into place.

5. Trim off the extra tubing and use glue to create a seal around the hole, and to hold the tube into place. You want it to be flush with the surface, so it isn't visible.

6. Use more glue to attach additional pieces of bamboo to the the center piece in a decorative fashion. Add as many as you like, being sure the the bases are attached at about a similar level. Try alternating shorter and taller pieces for a more dramatic effect.

7. Fill the decorative bowl with rocks to cover the pump and the bottom edges of the bamboo. You should have a nice-looking fountain that hides all of the hardware and rough bottom edges, except for the cord that comes out the back.

8. Fill the bowl with water to the top of the rocks and turn on the fountain. Add more water as necessary. The water will cascade out of the center bamboo piece with the spout, over the other pieces of bamboo and over the decorative rocks.

Tips & Warnings

• Grow live bamboo by sticking stalks into the gravel. Be sure to change the water weekly.
• Change your water regularly to avoid odor and bacterial growth as well as algae.

Resources

• Buy Bamboo
• Buy Fountain Pumps

[Tiya]

on 7/31/2009 it would hv been better and easier with some pics too.