Nice work. The lights make it Uber cool

I wish I was more artistic but I can't even draw stick figures... I'll probably go with your cabinet-grade veneer recommendation. :)

Sagulator only calculates the sag of the wood shelf, not the frame, correct? I am a mechanical engineer (a computational modeler) and I tried to do the sag calculations myself with the frame but wood properties vary a lot and depending on what I chose, I got different results. Hence, maybe someone here has practical experience which supersedes my calculations.

How wide were your shelves? I think the shelves in the link look somewhat comparable (based on visuals) but maybe a little smaller than what we have.

I am told that I have to stain :). My better half wants the wood look. I am assuming that would exclude MDF? I have never worked with MDF before.

I saw some videos where people build these frames in 2x3 and sat on them (basically weight of a person is not an issue -- seemingly). That's why I was thinking about 2x2.

I'm sorry, I forgot to mention the depth... 11-3/4" or 12" total space.