9 Stylish Rain Chains That Turn Downpours Into Design |

Sure, there’s a romance to dancing in the rain, but it can be hard to relax during a downpour when you’re preoccupied with planning damage control for your flooded garden. And while your gutters work hard to divert water away from your house, they aren’t the most efficient and can be visually arresting.

Perhaps you’re new to rain chain ideas. The Japanese design, called kusari-doi (which literally translates to ‘chain gutter’), allows water to cascade down a chain of links. It not only looks more architectural than a gutter but also creates a gentle trickling sound in your garden, like a water feature.

“Instead of hiding stormwater, they create a focal point whenever it rains, and are a chic yet subtle detail when it’s not raining,” landscape designer Katherine Aul Cervoni, founder of Staghorn NYC and The Cultivation, tells me.

But aside from aesthetic appeal, rain chains can be used to harvest rainwater, directing it into a water butt or feature so it can be used to water plants later.