I wasn't very impressed with the stands that my local fish store was selling so I started searching online. Several sites sold beautiful solid wood stands in a variety of different styles and colors. I picked out one that I liked best and asked for a quote. The manufacturer said $1600! I decided that I would attempt to make my own...

I first created two rectangles out of 2x4's and joined them with 4 40" pieces. With the frame done, a good friend (Nick) and I went to Lowes to pick out what would cover the stand. We considered using wood flooring but most of the pieces were either expensive or came in uneven lengths. We turned our attention to their furniture wood selections. It just so happened that the frame was 20" wide which was the same width as some of their selections. This was beneficial because we didn't want to have to cut anything length wise. We got away with a total of 3 piece of wood, which we cut horizontally. We also picked out three pieces of trim which had a great vine pattern on them.

Once we got home I routed several of the edges to give them a nice round appearance. We nailed the pieces onto the frame and attached the trim at the top and bottom of the stand. This covered up where we had cut, making all cuts unseen. I sanded and stained the stand with a nice dark red.

Overall the stand turned out great. If I had to do it again I could make a few improvements, but I'm very happy with how easy it was to assemble.