Simplifying doesn’t come easily to me, but I’m making a serious effort.  Limited to things we need or love only.  I’ve put the unnecessary and unloved things in the basement to sell.  One of the areas that has seen simplicity is the entertainment center.  At Christmas, it looked like this:

Accessories abound.  Glitter galore.  It changed throughout the year, seasonally, but always had a lot of stuff.

For a simple art piece on the top shelf, I decided to display a rusty old saw my father in law gave us.

A full handle is missing, another wooden piece gone.  Completely rusted and totally interesting.  Also, it’s the perfect width and height to fill in the top shelf.  Initially, I thought of making a simple pedestal.  I ran the idea past Ben, but he suggested a simpler, more rugged alternative.  Using small logs to hold it up.  You know, so the saw looked more in its ‘natural setting.’  Oh yeah, it was also simple and free because we had wood in our fire pile.

Disregard the cords, they’re not visible if you’re standing on the floor.  The rest of the clutter will be hidden once we build doors, so pretend we’ve done that while you’re using your imagination.

See how it spans the shelf, but is one single piece.  Before cutting the logs, I set the saw up there to see how it looked.  With music on, it vibrated and rattled the saw.  That was annoying and potentially dangerous (guillotine anyone?), so we raised it up five inches to sit just above the speaker.

Using a circular saw, Ben cut two-inch deep grooves for the blade to rest in.

It took only a few minutes and really elevates something so simple.  Of course it works well with the rustic touches I’ve been adding, too.