I'm betting that for most of us, the first four or five pieces of "furniture" we make are "shop furniture" - a router cabinet, maybe with a door and a drawer or two, a work/ assembly bench, a place to put the miter saw, somewhere to keep some chisels and maybe a hand plane or two. Since these are "just shop furniture", they're often built of inexpensive ply, MDF, some 2x4s or 4x4s and maybe some poplar or oak or birch for a face frame, a door or drawer front. The joinery - rabbets, dadoes, some biscuits? The "good stuff" will have to wait for when, sometime in the future, you're good enough, as will dovetails, mitered corners with "feathers", sliding dovetails, finger joints, triple mitered corners, mortise and tenons and so on. For finishing - some wipe on or brush on poly. If you're adventurous, you might try a stain before the poly, maybe some premixed shellac.
But why not include some "real furniture" wood in the shop furniture, just to get a feel for how it works and finishes? Why not try at least one "house furniture" type of joinery? Why not try three or four different finishes on different parts of each of the shop furniture pieces? A lot can be learned that'll come in handy later, if, and when you start making house furniture. And if something doesn't go so well - hell that's just shop furniture - you can paint it if all else fails.
Now folks who've checked out some of the projects on my wwing site think I'm nuts for putting ten or fifteen coats of french polished shellac on a sharpening station top, or coopered doors and a few sliding dovetail joints for a little router bit cabinet. Why do graduated drawers with graduated finger joints on a base unit for a mortiser?
Because I learned somethiing I'll probably use later - and I've got some interesting shop furniture.
So what piece of shop furniture is next on your To Do list?
charlie b