Our Farmhouse Chic Fountain

I'm thrilled to be partnering with smartpond® for this farmhouse style fountain. 

Their pond and water feature products are created exclusively for Lowes. 

This is a sponsored post. We've been provided the pump, tubing, and we've been compensated for our time and the supplies. 

This was a project that Bill and I had fun doing together.

When were asked to do this, we immediately wanted a stock tank as the basin for our fountain.
One of our favorite restaurants in Ft. Worth is in an old gas station.
Stock tanks full of greenery line the old concrete driveway.
We have been wanting to incorporate one of these tanks into our yard for a few years. 

This area of the yard has had me stumped. 

I've always wanted a border of flowers but the roots of our old trees are so near to the surface of the grass, nothing will grow.

Our new fountain adds urban, farmhouse chic to our front lawn and it coordinates with our stock tank pool in the back. 

It looks so cute in front of our split rail fence.
This fountain was easy to put together.

The sheep stock tank was for sale around the corner at the feed store. 

They loaded it in the truck for me but it was easy to maneuver by myself when I got home. 

I just rolled it from the truck to the split rail fence.

Bill made a stand out of some cedar. 

He put his H.S. Geometry skills to use as he came up with the perfect angle for our X shaped stand.
You could put the tank on the ground or make a simple stand out of bricks or rocks. 

I used some paint remover and Goo Gone to strip off the painted logo and some stickers. 

Once those things were finished, we made sure that the tank was level. 

When I saw this antique pump, I knew it would be a perfect centerpiece for our project. 

I was immediately filled with nostalgia because I used to play with one at my grandparent's lake house. 

 I'm crushing on the green paint!

I bought it and brought it home.

If you can snake plastic tubing through an object, it can be the focal point of a water feature. 

I didn't realize that this old thing had a metal stopper or plunger that was in the way of where the tubing would be threaded.  

I had a moment of panic because I was determined to use it. 

I unscrewed the bolt that was holding the connecting rod to the pump handle. 

We put the rod in the vise. The plunger was at the other end of the rod. 

The Sawzall cuts metal so we used it to cut through the cage around the plunger. 

Then we cut off the plunger (the metal thing in the center of the cage.)

My goal was to keep this as original as possible so we were thrilled that this worked.

Once we removed the plunger, we put the connecting rod back into the pump.
We were able to thread the tubing through the center of the pump and out of the spout.

We bolted it to an old metal milk crate to elevate it to the height it needed to be.
We are both old enough to remember the milk man so this was a fun piece to add to our fountain.

Once the old pump was secure, we attached the new pump to the other end of the tubing. 

We trimmed the tubing to fit and set the pumps and milk crate in the stock tank. 

We filled the stock tank, plugged in our pump and we were good to go. 

We noticed the water slowing a little. 

I realized that the pump had too much of an area of water to draw from. 

 I put an open plastic shoe box under the milk crate. 

I put the new pump inside and it fixed the problem. 

You can get your smartpond® products exclusively at Lowes. 

Our pump is the Low Water Shut-Off Fountain Pump. 

It circulates 100-170 gallons per hour and it has a three year limited warranty.

I love that it has a low water shut off.
 Our old pump was not and our bird bath ran out of water several times.
Please follow all the safety instructions that come with the pump. 

This frog would be a cute focal point for a fountain. 

The flowers and lumber came from Lowes. 

I love hearing the water when I come out of the house.
The gentle gurgling makes the Texas heat feel cooler. 

It's so darling!

If you would like to win a pump from smartpond, leave me a comment below.
I need your email address if you are not a blogger.
A winner will be chosen on June 26th.
Good luck!
Thank you to smartpond® for giving us this opportunity.
Thanks to Stacey @ Poofing the Pillows for recommending us for this project.
We love it.  

Katie