I needed it clarified that the table was actually supposed to be made out of 2x4s. Not that I'm unfamiliar with dimensional lumber - over the last three summers I've built a shed, a deck and a couple fences; just that none of them were considered furniture. However having gotten over that initial hurdle, it was then a question of what the table should look like and that was hammered out (so to speak) relatively smoothly with a few back-and-forth sketches, text and a phone call.

So after finalizing the plans, completing the cost estimate details ("yah, $50 or $60 maybe") and getting the appropriate reviews, approvals and sign-offs from the authorizing body, it was time for a trip to Home Depot.

An actual masked-up, in-person trip was required since the table needed straight boards which if you've ever used dimensional lumber and obscure latin terms, know that that is a rara avis.

Several minutes of sorting throught the pile of 8' 2x4s eventually resulted in this small collection of recta tabulas.

The tabulas were all stamped with the information shown here. From this we can glean that the lumber:
- is certified by the Alberta Forest Products Association;
- is from Mill 67 (Canadian Forest Products Ltd. - Grande Prairie);
- is from a coniferous tree (a.k.a softwood; Spruce-Pine-Fir);
- was graded according to National Lumber Grades Authority rules;
- is kiln-dried and heat treated (19 per cent or less moisture content) and
- is of #2 Prime grade.

It also shows that it was produced on Jan 12, 2021. We bought the wood on Jan 25 - that wood's fresher than a lot of the vegetables I get at Save On Foods every week.

First thing was to chop the boards into appropriate lengths for all of the pieces that were going to be needed.

That was a fairly quick process using the radial arm saw, producing this stack of pieces, ready for the next stage in their evolution into a higher form of usefulness.

Only the tops of the two table sections used full-thickness 2x4s. The rest of the pieces were to be half-thickness since the extra strength (and weight) weren't needed.

In this shot I'm resawing a 2x4 for one of the short legs into two 3/4"-thick pieces.

Of course the finest furniture craftsmen know that you must sand off all those black labels, despite the painstaking nature of the effort.

Virtually all the table pieces consist of three adjacent widths of boards so I decided to laminate them using joinery biscuits. Those require a slot which I cut on the router table.

In this photo, one of the short legs is ready for gluing.

For those biscuitspotters out there, those are #20 biscuits (which you'll know are 2-1/4" x 15/16").

I wanted to avoid glue squeeze-out onto the board faces so I applied glue only to the biscuits themselves.

I didn't bother to clamp the 3/4"-thick pieces when they were glued together since only the biscuits had glue applied.

For the two tops I used glue on the sides as well as the biscuits and they were clamped until the glue set as shown here.

The last bits that needed work were the assembly blocks. They were 1.5"-square sections of 2x4 about 3-1/4" long that would have screws through two sides to hold pieces together.

I planned to use 2" pan-head screws so to get a bit more depth I drilled 1/8"-deep counterbores for the heads. Clearance holes were drilled after that.

At this point the tall table section (upside-down on the bench) is in the midst of assembly.

The legs have already been mounted and here I'm drilling a pilot hole to attach an assembly block to the front skirt.

And despite the presence of the miniature hammer, I can assure you that no nails were used anywhere in the table.

And 28 screws later, the tall section was completed.

The underside view shows where the assembly blocks were located.

The pieces for the lower section were all made a bit long so they could be trimmed for the proper length and to give nice flat ends.

In this photo, the legs are mounted and the block to affix one of the skirts is being screwed down.

The right-angle driver wasn't really needed for this particular screw but it was pretty handy for most of the others in this short secion of table.

The table legs had gone together pretty quickly but the bookshelf section took a bit more time.

I obviously didn't want the big assembly blocks in the bookshelf area so instead I used a pocket screw approach for the walls. I used the normal pan-head screws but first drilled a hole at 15° into the wood using a jig. That provided a hidden attachment that didn't intrude on the shelf space.

This shows the completed short section of the table.

I wasn't sure the 10" height of the main section would be enough so instead of screwing in the top shelf, I routed slots in its sides and slid it in over small dowels set into holes in the walls. That way the top shelf and dowels can be removed for additional bookshelf height.

The plan called for two independent tables that could be attached together to make one unit. I considered various methods that wouldn't look too obvious if they were separated.

I first tried making a pair of thin brackets that slid between adjacent boards and were locked in place with a tapered rod fed through a wire loop, but that didn't end up being rubust enough.

Eventually I decided there was nothing simpler or more effective than a couple screws and that their holes wouldn't be too obvious, so that's what it ended up with.

So with no finishing needed, that was it.