DIY Alpine Stone Trough Prototype Build - August 2026
Just a few days ago, I posted some inspiration and details of a DIY Alpine trough project that I found on Instagram where someone used a *real* stone trough as a water feature ( wasserspiel ). I talked about buying a styrofoam cooler to use as the chassis and building out the 'stone look' with concrete. As luck would have it, I came across a free (to me) styrofoam cooler this past week. It is small. At least....smaller than I want for a wasserspiel or...ahem.... Alpine stone trough. But, for a prototype? I think it will work perfectly. The outside dimensions of the prototype are 15" long x 11" wide x 9" deep. It has 1" thick walls. Based on what I picked up from watching various YouTube shorts, Instagram reels and reddit posts, there are a number of ways to go about DIY'ing your own stone trough. You can apply burlap and concrete. You can apply something like an acrylic fortifier to try to g...