I built a new TV stand for myself. I grew up watching my dad, uncle and grandfather do all kinds of woodworking so it was time to dive in myself. It was a lot of work, but also very rewarding and I am really glad with how it turned out. Towards the end I kinda ran out of gas and so I ended up skimping on the legs with some premade ones. I would like to redo the legs at some point.
The most rewarding part was creating various tools out of wood to build the thing. In the same way that we build tools to make programming easier. I made a little jig so that I could cut all the upright pieces the same dimensions using a circular saw.
I've built a few things out of wood at this point, and my process is largely the same as yours... I start with an idea and a _very_ rough sketch and then just start building. I watch YouTube videos of these people who design every feature and facet in CAD before stepping foot in the workshop and I always wonder where they find the time to do that, and what they do when their plans don't match up with reality.
The most rewarding part was creating various tools out of wood to build the thing. In the same way that we build tools to make programming easier. I made a little jig so that I could cut all the upright pieces the same dimensions using a circular saw.
Here is an album of photos: https://www.flickr.com/photos/whalesalad/albums/721777203103...