DIY Life

It's summer: the season of sun, sand and surfing! So let's talk about how to incorporate a dash of beach flavor into your interior décor. Specifically, let's talk surfboards.

First up: Enter the DIY Life-Lunar Lounge Coffee Table Giveaway! A beautifully streamlined Eliptikal table is up for grabs. Inspired by 1950s interiors, the Eliptikal also evokes the world of surfing style. Want to win it? Just follow the link to Erin's post and tell us how you would put your own decorative stamp on this baby.

Now, I'll confess, I'm no surfer. However, I love the look of vintage long boards. Yes, they're kind of big and bulky, but they also possess elegant lines. They speak so powerfully of the ocean and outdoors living. Plus they effortlessly add an unexpected, fun twist to any room.

I spent many hours playing carroms as a kid. Carroms is a game similar to billiards. Rules vary considerably from country to country and even from town to town. A few years ago I bought a board at a thrift store while visiting my parents. When my father saw it he became excited and a family game of carroms followed.

Since that purchase I've bought two other carroms boards. Each has been slightly different but the size of the playing surface works great for a table top.

I have found that the corner pockets make great drink holders. Friends that see the table want to play or want to know about the game if they never have played before.

Suggestions on how to build a table out of a carroms board after the jump.

Do you know someone who doesn't need anything, but you still love them enough to give them a one of a kind gift? I think I may have found the perfect Christmas gift for that someone who has everything.

Eric Harshbarger competes in Scrabble tournaments, but also has a serious Lego profession. It would seem that every time he competed in a tournament, someone would tell him that he should make a Scrabble board out of LEGOs. So he did just that. He glued each Lego piece together and made a circular Scrabble board. He even made tile racks from Legos. He put his name on his finished board so that no one would mistake his board for someone else's.

Just think, every time you want to play Scrabble, you won't have to move your tile rack. With the circular concept, everything should stay in place and turn nicely with the lazy-susan turntable glued to the bottom of your new Scrabble board. What a great gift to give someone who loves Scrabble. If you need other ideas on what to do with Legos or just want to add to your Lego collection, check out the 75th Anniversary Lego special, courtesy of Dan Chilton.

If you're into clock building, you're probably good with mechanical gears, woodworking, precision work, and, in some cases, you're a lubrication expert. Aside from the mechanical variety, do you delve into the electronic variety at all? As in LCD or LED displays and electronic timers?

There's nothing like a bright red LED display to evoke memories of that late 1970s-era Texas Instruments calculator, or Mattel handheld Football game, and there's still something to be said for clocks using this kind of display. If you're handy with a simple breadboard, some LED segments, and a power source, you're set.