Square furniture is easy to build, and mission-style furniture appeals to me because of its simplicity. I once saw a round side table with a chessboard inlay. I needed a side-table and decided to experiment with quarter-sawn white oak, the traditional wood for mission-style furniture. It is a practice piece to gain some experience before building a mission style sofa. This proved to be a good idea, as it made it clear to me that I needed a decent table-saw. It is hard to cut all the tenons by hand so that they are the same length all around and across pieces, especially for a beginning woodworker. After much agonizing about which one to purchase, and to justify the expense, I bought a Delta left-tilting table saw with 50 inch Biesemeyer fence. Another thing that proved tricky were the tenons of the table top. I cut them with my router, but did not have a bit for it, so I had to make two cuts, that unfortunatelly did not always line up. Hence the top isn't quite level. I did my best with a belt sander, but had to write this off to experience. Eehhh, it is nice to be reminded that you learned from experience.