(Black) Walnut

Hard (White) Maple

Ash (grey- I wandered the lumberyard and picked the grey-est board I could find)

1/4" MDF sheet, somewhat larger than the ultimately desired shape

Materials:For this table, I used three different woods. You can use whatever you want, but you need two with significantly different colors, and a third that is in-between. In my case, I went with white-black-grey. To get this, I used:I exclusively used 4/4 lumber (that's actually around 2 cm thick, for you non-americans), although some thicker wood would have been nice for the legs- I just laminated two pieces for those.Tools:I made every cut on my table saw, using a fence and a cross-cut sled (I won't go into all the details of how to make one-it's fairly self explanatory, and you can always look elsewhere for details). You can probably use a chop/miter saw instead of a cross-cut sled, but you'll still need a tablesaw to rip your boards into the right width. Given all the cuts you'll be making, I strongly advise you avoid hand-tools here.You'll want a modest pile of woodworking clamps, as well as a pair of nice straight-edges to clamp across the whole row. A nice straight board will do well- I'd recommend giving it a layer of furniture wax to keep it from getting accidentally glued to the workpiece. you can always remove it later if you want to use the board in something.If you don't have access to the power tools, you might be able to get someone to do the cuts for you; I think many woodworking stores (like the one I go to) have shops for doing custom jobs. If you're just getting started in woodworking, have no fear; this project is about as simple as things come- it's just lots of repetition. There's no fancy cuts anywhere.