I see these outdoor junkyard tubs featured here and there, but I liked the rustic simplicity of this one, from a diy featured at Houzz: salvage transformed into elemental luxury.
We had one years ago on our back deck in Malibu. I found an old tub for $5 in a junk yard with a flaking ocean scene painted on the rusty sides. I bought a rubber stopper for a dollar,propped it up up on a couple of bricks to level it, and filled it with a garden hose. Helluva a lot cheaper than a hot tub. Or a real pool. No humming filters burning electricity day and night, no chemicals. In fact, no plumbing at all! When we pulled the plug, we watered the surrounding trees.
Everybody loved it.
Not just the kids. Sans faucets, a grownup could stretch out full length and chill for hours with a glass of chablis and a good book, accompanied by cawing crows in the eucalyptus above and breaking waves below.
—Susan Dworski
Editor’s note: Cool water is, of course, perfect for a hot day. But for a chilly night, should you prefer hot water in your tub, buy yourself a portable dishwasher-to-sink-faucet-connector, that will allow you to connect a garden hose to a kitchen faucet.
Related posts: salvaged-wood bathtub, headboard, island, floor…
annals of bad design?: sculptural bathtub
d-i-y aromatherapy baths + bath salts (cheap)
dumpster as park, mini public park, swimming pool
Or you can do as my nephew did, and stilt the bathtub above a fire pit (he made it out of a halved fuel barrell kinda thing). Then you can heat up the water and control the temperature a bit, and get the smell of woodsmoke while you’re at it!