Best made plans...

When I first meet with a client there is a lot of discussion regarding a "plan" for their piece.  Colours, stain, natural top, glaze, wax, etc.

But like they say,

The best laid schemes o' Mice an' Men, 

Gang aft agley,
An' lea'e us nought but grief an' pain,
For promis'd joy!
(The best laid schemes of Mice and Men
oft go awry,
And leave us nothing but grief and pain,

For promised joy!)

~Robert Burns To a Mouse

Not that I am left with grief when working on a piece, well, not often am I left with grief ;)  Sometimes I have a plan for something I am working on and then as I dig into the piece and begin sanding, painting, and revealing it's character, the plan has to change.  

Originally this piece came to me yellow.  All of it.  Yellow.  I wish I had a before pic- it was 1970 yellow.  Bad.  So bad that I jumped into painting it and didn't bother to take a before pic.

The plan was to paint it Pencil Tip by Behr and then add dark wax, ebony stain up top and paint the hardware black.  As I was working on it I felt that the ebony stain on top would be too heavy with the black hardware and the sanded exposed wood had a lovely Restoration Hardware wood look to it.

Dark wax mixed with clear wax gave it just enough highlights...

I love that my client was flexible with the plan and welcomed any changes that I was making throughout the process.