Here are a few pictures of my first attempt to make a piece of furniture. The table was built specifically to fit a 28" by 34" porthole I bought on Ebay. The table will be used to show off my "big" lobster. This lobster was 14.9 pounds and caught on a night dive on July 31, 1994.
"Larry" (my daughters idea) was a near perfect specimen of a lobster, so I had him professionally mounted. 

Materials are red oak (exterior), pine (inner box) and plywood (bottom). Finish is Minwax stain and gloss polyurethane. And a custom mix of off white paint for the interior. The off white was actually blended to match the color of the beach sand. But in the end, it doesn't look much different then "white".

The steel bolts were dipped in gold Rustoleum paint for "effect". I also added Rope Lights which can be seen under the rim in the 4th picture. It really looks neat at night with the lights on.