I built this out of about $45 worth of Ash which I'd never worked with before. Ash is VERY easy to work with, very hard, has great grain figure, and cuts and machines very nicely. It's often used to mimic oak because of the figure. And it's very cheap. I think I'll build the coffee table out of Ash when it comes time to tackle that project. This was a dream wood to work with. The picture below is the lower shelf and I absolutely love the way it turned out. It was the most challenging from a woodworking point of view because of the way it attaches to the legs (half-inch tenons on both sides of each leg). Because of how it was put together, it all had to go together at the same time, gluing it all together in a flurry of clamps and straps and drips. 
This is the detail of the legs and aprons. I used a 1/2" core box bit set to 1/8" deep. It gave the legs an elegant look while the aprons didn't seem right until I thought of adding the line there too. The distance to the bottom of the apron to the groove is the same as the side of the leg to the groove. I'm sure that's some sort of rule or something, but I decided to do it and I think it looks ok. The finish is three coats of Red Mahogany Minwax stain followed by three coats of Minwax Poly (semi-gloss). The legs were ripped from 8/4 (wood lingo for 2") stock while the rest was from 5/4. I thought that would make the table look a bit more beefy.
Very nice.
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