Thread: Where to start!?

Hi everyone,

I've been lurking for a couple of weeks, getting the lay of the land and just wanted to get some advice to start with if I may

I've got no experience whatsoever (unless you count the semester in high school of woodworking class I took a dozen years ago?...I made a very nice...erm...box type object haha), and I've always loved well made and interestingly designed furniture. As I'm moving into a new home this year I've finally decided to make a dedicated poker room and as such will need all the furniture that goes with that type of games room. I've been google-ing for about the last 3 months and have found a few pieces that look ok, but still aren't 100% what I'm looking for, so I figured I've got plenty of time before I move, what if I start small and see if I can learn to make these pieces my self instead of shelling out thousands of dollars to have them shipped from overseas.

I can get some basic furniture for the interim from Ikea (chairs) and a foldup poker table etc reasonably cheaply so I can still keep playing while I'm learning and making but at the end of the day I'd love to have a room of pieces that has people asking where I shop, its that good and exactly what a poker room needs!

The pieces I'm most interested in making are:
(ranking -* easiest looking project ***** hardest looking project...but I may be wrong on my ranking system of course since I know nothing about what is easy and what isn't!)

***Poker Table
*Side Drinks Tables on wheels (1 per two players)
*****Chairs x 10
*****Roulette Wheel (for fun as I'd love to add a Roulette Table to the room one day and if not it would still look like a great piece of craft)
**Poker Chip Box

I work full-time in Mandurah, Western Aus, but would love to take a class in the evenings or on the weekend and was wondering if anyone knew of any training companies that might have something for beginers...I found the Forest Heritage Centre in Dwellingup and have emailed them to see if their introductory course would be what I might be looking for and if it's available this year...but wasn't sure if there was anything else out there that could get me started from the very bottom of the woodworking totem pole

Also, would I benefit from taking some wood craft classes at the local arts/crafts centre down here just to get a feel for tools and small projects?

Is there anyone on the forum that lives in or around Mandurah WA that may be interested in doing some of these projects with me one day a week in your work shed (teaching me along the way, maybe both doing our own version of each item, but you would have me asking you a hundred million questions a day as we go along ) in return for a block of beer every couple of weeks (and of course I'd buy my own project materials etc!)?

Ok! I think that's long enough for my first post heh, any first timer/novice pointers would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks,
Louisa