I actually built this a while ago. It’s wormy maple (ambrosia maple to some). The frame is 8/4 and the rest is 4/4. I put a dado in the frame and the backboard just floats inside. I jammed some pieces of foam in the back of the dado to prevent the backboard from making noise. I routed some grooves in the top board and added led strip lights for reading.
I bought a thin touch pad that acts as the on/off switch and it also dims. I used picked holes to attach the top piece for easy removal if I ever have a problem with the lights. The finish is 4 coats of waterlox
