Your water tank will never be the most aesthetically pleasing part of your property but there are two things you can do: hide it or make it a feature. Here are five styling tips for your water tank.
Wherever you live, chances are your house has a hot water tank or a rainwater storage tank and I bet it isn’t the prettiest thing in your backyard. Fortunately, there are two ways you can style this functional item: by hiding it or by making it a feature.
Hiding a water tank
- Camouflage it
One way to make your water tank less obvious is to make it look like part of its surroundings by painting it the same or a similar colour to the background it is up against. This could be your house colour, fence colour or even matching your garden. By not drawing the eye, it may even go unnoticed.
Select a rainwater tank that blends with the elements of your home Image Courtesy of www.waterplex.com.au
- Conceal it
If you find the tank too difficult to blend into its environment, consider concealing it altogether. Screens or encasements are a great way to make sure the tank is still accessible while blocking it from view.
Decorative metal screening can make a stunning backdrop for your garden with the added bonus of coming in a range of patterns, colours and finishes. No one need know there’s a tank behind the screen!
With an encasement you can treat the tank like a shed with a gate and lock, just another functional room or area you can visit in the garden. Another benefit of using an encasement is that it keeps children and pets away from the water tank, which can be a safety concern when there are large pumps in action.
Conceal the rainwater tank with a timber screen Image Courtesy of www.chippystimber.com.au
Taking pride in your water tank
- Refresh it
Many people dislike water tanks because it’s a fairly boring item and there’s not a lot you can do with it. Work around this limitation by carefully creating a garden around the tank so that it becomes part of the space. This refreshes the plain look of the tank, and also (literally) adds life to the area.
Save water by installing a rainwater tank and use it as a backdrop to your garden
- Decorate it
There are a number of ways you can even make the tank a feature of your garden. Some people like to paint a mural acknowledging that ‘yes, it’s a tank, but we can at least make it a talking point’, while others prefer to decorate it, for example using ornamental metal screening, as above, so people notice it but it might not look like a tank.
Image courtesy of girlnearsighted.blogspot.com.au
Hide and pride
- Hide it by making it a feature
Instead of simply putting up a screen or encasement, why not make it a feature of the garden? You can get creative with timber screening by growing or hanging plants off it, creating a vertical herb garden or a garden wall look. Once the plants grow, no one will even know there’s a water tank behind it.
If you have a small yard, this could also be a great way to save space; using the wall to grow plants means you can use the floor space for something else.
Image courtesy of www.jillbert.com
Will you hide your tank or make it a feature?
Written by Naomi Findlay
Naomi Findlay is the founder and principal educator at the International Institute of Home Staging. Australia’s premier home staging and property styling education provider. Students of the IIHS are all across Australia and include many contestants from The Block.