When Shari is developing a plan for the decorating of a room she does her research. By asking questions and making sketches of the room, she will be able to identify what style the homeowners want, what budget they have in mind and what materials will be required to bring her concept to reality. 

I guess the same can be said for me when I start one of my woodworking projects. First I need to find out from Shari and the homeowners what the needs are for the room as far as project construction. What style is the furniture going to be? Is it going to be a traditional piece, contemporary or country? How much time and materials will I need?

And I need to find an inspiration for my starting point. So I pore over magazines and catalogs to help locate a style that I'm interested in. I also mark pages that may not be what I'm looking for now, but somewhere down the road it may come in handy. 

Browsing furniture show rooms is another source of inspiration and when I find a prospect for a design I like, I ask the store manager to allow me to take a photo of the piece. Usually they don't mind. When I assure them that I'm not going to make an exact reproduction, and that I intend to build just one, I have yet to be refused this request.

 Sometimes Shari and I will decide that we want to build a new piece of furniture that matches an existing piece. So I grab my tape measure and make exact measurements of the original. I'm not copying the piece; the measurements simply give me a direction of how I want the new piece to look. A little drawing with the dimensions of the furniture will give me a reference while I'm building. I also take a few photos of the original to have with me back at the shop.

A digital camera works great for this and I can even print up the photo on my printer for same-day use.
Once I have an idea of how to build the piece, I need to decide on the type of lumber to use. If you don't know how to identify lumber types you can usually remove a drawer or a door from the original and take it to your local lumberyard or home center. There are a variety of wood scraps in my shop, so I just bring a few pieces along until I find a type that matches.

After I have finished building a new piece, I usually try to match the original stain color. So I again start with a drawer or door and go to the paint store and, using their color charts, try to find the colors that almost match.

I buy a few small pint size of the close ones, then go back to the shop and make a few samples on the same type of wood I'm using.

 If you want to be a little more prepared next time, make a sample board of a variety of colors on a single piece of lumber. If will take a lot of the guesswork out of the process. Sometimes I need to combine a few colors to get the right one, but with the use of a sample board I can make all the trials and errors I want. 

Once you have the right formula, write it down for future use and make a note on the sample board. You may want this color again someday.

In fact, doing a little research can go a long way in removing some of the guesswork from any workshop project.

Matt

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