I used to make genuine leather doll furniture for collectors as well as regular folks for their daughters and also leather covered boxes and small chests. Why? Because I hated wood finishing. I used a TON of decorative tacks and my leather was almost free. :) A pine box that cost me a few bucks to make sold for 30-50 times with less labor than wood finishing. I like a little wood for trim.
Along with the brass escutcheon pins I used tacks like these.
I'm sure you are wondering about that almost 'Free" leather. Secondhand clothing stores. They get a ton of leather coats some full length that are too beat up or damaged for resale. They throw them out. I used to have them save them for me and I paid $5 for a garbage bag full I could barely carry.
I could sell a 18" high leather wing back chair to doll collectors for $300 and this was 20 years ago. Not every day, but it was a great pleasure to be able to make one off items and sell them at a profit. I used to advertise in Doll World magazine, the ads were ridiculously cheap for a magazine.
You can make beautiful leather boxes for almost nothing this way and almost NO FINISHING OR SANDING. I hate both.
Now I do very little woodwork these days and work mostly in concrete. Talk about your cheap materials. This bowl was my very first and cost me $3 to make and it will look like this 200 years from now..:)
This stuff sells very well BTW..so if you're tired of the cost of hardwood