Many people who like a stain and varnish or just a varnish finish, use either white oak, red oak or ash. I’m partial to ash because it tends to be a bit lighter in color.

Birch is also used by some.

If you want to know what these woods look like go to a HomeDepot or Lowes and look at their hardwood section.

Up scale choices are maple, cherry, walnut and mahogany. These are a good bit more expensive.

If you want to consider painted finish then poplar is the very best choice with pine coming in second.

With out more detail it is very difficult to make a guess on material costs but it is all going to be expensive. As an example a 4′ by 8′ sheet of 3/4 oak plywood can run $75 to $100.