I love creative DIY projects, especially ones that are inexpensive. I came across this post over at Make where someone used an old washing machine barrel to make a decent looking lamp. Seems like it would be fairly easy to do, and I see really cheap and/or free washing machines on craigslist all the time. Almost as exciting as the DIY lamp was one of the comments where someone mentioned that washing machine barrels make great fire pits as well. I have been looking for a decent looking inexpensive modern fire pit for a long time, and this might just be the trick. Anyone else have creative ideas for an old washing machine barrel?