After doing my "sketches", I drew a 4'x8' rectangle to represent a sheet of plywood. I was planning on using sanded plywood with 1x2's and molding for trim and edges. Then I started taking components from my plans and laying them out on the new 4x8 rectangle to figure my cut plan. Turns out to require 6 sheets of plywood, plus 1x2's and plus molding.
Once I got the wood, I printed out the plans and started cutting for the middle section, which would be 8' long, so that would be the easiest cuts. I hand cut the larger, longer cuts with a rail, then the smaller cuts with my table saw. To start my assembly, I have the bottom shelf on top of 2 vertical pieces that are 4 5/8" high (will be putting baseboard on the front). The sides will be glued and nailed to that to support the top shelf.
After gluing (using Titebond), clamping, then nailing with 2" nails, it took about 2 hours of assembly.