Last week Randy played a trick on the office when he was the only one at work. On Monday, when it turned out that Randy was working from home, Nate, Sarah, and myself decided to pay Randy back by turning his office into a beach.

It was meant to be a gift to him as much as it was a prank, since Randy's redecorating was fun at heart, and Randy actually likes the beach very much.

One Monday afternoon and 400 lbs. of sand later, Instructables HQ became equipped with one of the few things that we were missing - the beach.

Please note: many employers may find this behavior objectionable. Duplicate at your own risk. Nate, Sarah, and Noah are in no way responsible if you lose your job. Actually, to amend that statement, Noah will take partial responsibility if you lose your job. Seek retribution at 489 Clementina St. San Francisco, CA 94103.

Step 1: Wait for a Co-worker to Pull a Prank

We all do strange things when left alone. Last Friday Randy was no exception.

Step 2: Remove All of Their Belongings and Lay Down Some Tarp

Before covering an entire office in sand, it's best to remove all of their valuable possessions and cover the carpet in tarps. This is especially so when the office happens to be occupied by an expert hacker whose valuable possessions could get damaged. This is also a good idea when you rent your office space and your landlord already thinks that you are crazy domestic terrorists running an intern brothel out of your website business front (seriously).

Step 3: Protect Against Dust

Show co-workers that you haven't completely lost your mind by showing concern for the health of your collaborators, and others in the office by covering doors and windows in fabric to keep the sand dust from creating a mess of the rest of the space and the lungs of your interns.

Step 4: Fill Office With Sand

This was actually the easy part.

Fill the office with 400 lbs of play sand.

*Expert tip*
Spring for the extra $5/bag and buy "premium play sand", rather than just the stuff that gets mixed with cement when making concrete. The sand for concrete is really dusty and not pleasing to walk on.

Try to avoid getting caught by the boss. Lucky for us, the dust shield also hid our activities from Instructables CEO Eric. Even more lucky for us, the boss was on board with the project and couldn't stop laughing/peeking in on us to see our progress!

Step 5: Replace Belongings

Very carefully put everything back. Don't tear the plastic, and don't drop electronics or small objects in the sand. They will be lost forever in the sands of Randy Beach.

Step 6: Beachify

What's a beach without an ocean! Fill a large rubber tub with water and carefully slide it back into the beach office.

We blew up some balloons and drew faces, fins, hair and nipples on them to make them look more like fish.

Sarah got to work on creating a sand castle robot village, Noah hung a frisbee from the ceiling and we threw up a beach sign that was just provocative enough to make Randy feel uncomfortable.

Step 7: Reveal

When Randy walked into work this morning he was quite excited to see that his office had magically turned into a beach since he had left work last week. He smiled a lot, and didn't say anything for a long time.

Success!

Step 8: Make It Permanent

Clean up is a pain and the sand is actually a much needed improvement.

Rather than get rid of 400 pounds of sand, incorporate it into your life. Add netting, crabs, shells and palm trees.

Wear funny hats and complain about the overcast.

Place a bucket of water outside of the door so you can rinse your feet should you need to leave your beach office. Keep adding stuff and hanging things from the ceiling to pay respect to the fact that the beach is always changing, and as a result, so are we.

Keep in mind Instructables users - this is the office of the man who is the main admin of the site and who steers our "digital ship" if you will...of course, he only modestly refers to himself as "sheriff of these parts".