The design is basically a box frame with a shelf positioned about three-quarters of the way down. (Betsy DiJulio)

It has been said that we spend the first half of our lives accumulating things and the second half giving them away. I am not quite there yet, but almost. I don’t need more decorative objects, and most of the time I don’t even want them. So what are we makers to do? Keep making, but for others.

When I saw online a version of the display shelf that would become this month’s project, the rustic “farmhouse” style was appealing, but not my style. Still, I was drawn to its elegant simplicity and, while I didn’t know who the recipient would be, I knew I would make it. The design is basically a box frame with a shelf positioned about three-quarters of the way down from the top.

Out on a dog walk, musing over the lumber I would need while lamenting that an item with a “reclaimed” aesthetic would require a trip to the home improvement store, I passed a neighbor’s home with a pile of discarded lumber on the curb. Delighted at the synchronicity, I dropped my dogs back at home and returned to carefully sort through the short stack to make my selections, carrying them home on foot.

Sonny, our longtime next-door neighbor, friend and single dad, is a retired cop who still loves to be of service and is quite skilled at all kinds of tasks. When I shared the inspiration photo with him and broached the subject of a low-key collaboration, he was all in. And instantly I knew who would be the recipient of our project: his kind, bright and hard-working daughter who lives at home and works, having just completed her first year of college.

After I worked out the simple design and dimensions of the display shelf, I took the marked lumber over to Sonny, who owns an electric saw, to make the few cuts. Back at home, I used wood glue to adhere the pieces in place. Once they were dry, I took it next door again, where Sonny used tap screws to secure the joints at the four corners and attach the shelf on both ends, screwing through the sides.

One of the beauties of a project with a rough-hewn aesthetic is that you need not take the time to miter the joints, sand and stain, or conceal the screw heads. The imperfections and inconsistencies are part of the unstudied charm. So when he returned it to me for a final time, I attached small D-ring hangers on the back near the tops of the vertical supports so that no wire would show and so that the horizontal piece at the top would not be stressed by a sawtooth hanger.

All that remained was to decide on a vase and plant to sit on the shelf. In keeping with the low-budget, upcycled nature of the project, I eschewed even the thrift store and opted instead for an olive green glass jar with a matte finish that I had saved from my Paromi ginger-turmeric green tea. For the plant, I chose the feathery white heads of loosestrife that grows prolifically on our wooded lot, a gift from a neighbor who’s a master gardener.

Before I took the display shelf back one final time, I attached a white cotton bow — recycled, of course — and a hand-written card explaining that it was a labor of love concocted by her dad and me. I knew it was a win when, almost instantaneously, I received a sweet thank-you text and a photo of it already hanging in her room, whose walls were a blue-green that looked to have been chosen expressly to complement the olive green vase.

Betsy DiJulio, betsy@midcenmod.net

Free! All items were recycled or on hand.