I'm a long time lurker here and have recently got back into woodworking, but I would consider myself a novice. A friend asked if I could build this and I said yes and did lots of designing and reading before I sarted building. The top and legs are quarter sawn red oak. I wish I had made the whole thing in QSRO, but I had some red oak left over and I was trying to save them some money on materials.
The top has a lifting bolt on either side of the table that lifts the top enough to pull it up and flip it over to change to the Lego base plates. I followed the water-dye-shellac-gel stain-shellac-wax method to get the look for the top.
Overall I am happy with the way it came out, if I were to build another one, there are things I would change, but that happens with any project. The friend was pleased with the way it came out also. I've gotten the bug to do some bigger projects now that I got this out of the way.