I fear you may be in for a frustrating and ultimately disappointing time, if you try to do this using whole pieces of softwood timber from builders' merchants.
Most softwood that's easily available has many defects that make it hard to use for more than the most casual construction. Specifically, it's machined to get the most out of each tree, largely irrespective of grain direction, knots, shakes and other defects. My grandfather, who was a timber merchant in the 1920s, called most of it "dunnage", meaning it was only really suitable for chocking-up cargo in the holds of merchant ships.
Nowadays we use more of the tree than we ever used to. It's possibly good husbandry, and it doesn't matter (much) in most construction framing applications, but does when you want to make furniture out of it. What's more, the "easing"of the arrises (sharp edges) of the pieces wastes a lot of usable material when you are joining stuff properly. You need rectangular cross-sections, not rounded corners, or you'll wast a lot of material (or have to design round the problem). After all, it's only done to stop builders getting splinters!
I suspect a large amount of mass-produced "chunky" furniture is made up of laminated pieces, or of staves glued together (like "solid" kitchen worktops). This is because mass production needs consistency, and the timings in the supply chain are too tight to allow timber to stand around for years seasoning/acclimatizing before it's used. You can also use manky stuff that you'd have to discard if it was a single bit of material - you hide the flaws. It's a similar idea to the way knots are removed from the faces of plywood and replaced with elliptical patches.
So my suggestion would be to use man-made materials to start off with, for example moisture-resistant MDF sheet ("Medite" for example). Either laminate it for thick tops (or put a lipping round it), or make hollow legs. And then a painted finish looks wonderful and hides the material used. And if it's hollow or lipped it doesn't have to be horribly heavy, and filler hides all sorts of mistakes!
Worst case, if you want wood grain, get sheets with veneer already applied. With a tracksaw, a pegboard workbench ("MFT"in Festool-speak, but there are much cheaper equivalents), and some clamps (which you'd need anyway), you can make some nice stuff.
Have a look at Peter Millard's YouTube channel for good examples of creative use of MDF. Using a Domino would be brill, but you can get by with dowels or biscuits, as the main task is alignment for good glue-ups.
Find a supplier that accepts a cutting list to do the big cuts in the boards - it makes everything much easier to handle and means you don't need a big work or storage area. The trick, as with everything is accurate measuring and cutting, but man-made materials give you a head start.
I think you might find this a lot less frustrating than working on something for days/weeks, only to have it warp or split once you've finished it. And finally, it's actually harder to use edge tools on softwood than hardwoods such as beech and oak (in my experience). This is because the fibres are more springy, so tools need to be razor-sharp (literally), otherwise you tear and split stuff you're trying to plane or chisel. You always have to sharpen a lot, but you probably actually need better sharpness to work softwood, if you want a good finish - it doesn't sand very nicely, nor accept stains or finishes (as Phill commented above) either compared to hardwoods.
I speak from bitter experience.
Anyway, whatever material you choose, start simple and allow about 3x-4x the time you expect (or a book of plans says). Also expect to waste a lot of material too - you will make mistakes, and if using softwood, you'll be dodging the faults in the stock to get pieces you can actually use.
Not trying to depress you, but successes are encouraging. Having to persevere through gritted teeth when you're starting out isn't most people's idea of fun...
I'll now put on my armour and flame-proof suit and wait for the barrage to start...
E.
