Can a furniture maker match the finish or color I already have?

Yes, closely. Give me the flooring, cabinetry, paint, fabric or finish sample you are working to, and I make physical samples, adjusting the wood and the finish until it coordinates with what you are trying to achieve. It is done on real wood rather than on a screen, because a color on a monitor and the same color on walnut under your lights are two different things.

What to send

A physical piece is best: a spare length of the flooring, a cabinet door or drawer front, a paint chip, a fabric swatch, or the finish sample your designer specified. Photographs of the room help with proportion and light, but not with color, because every camera and every screen shifts it.

If there is a specific color direction rather than a sample, describe it and send whatever reference you have. The samples do the rest of the work.

How the samples work

The samples are made in wood, then adjusted for color, sheen and feel until they sit right beside what you sent. You see them in your own light before the piece is finished.

For a resin table, the sample is a 9.5 by 17 inch charcuterie board that shows the resin color and the finish, made and shipped to you.

What this is, and what it is not

I am not an interior designer, and I won’t choose the palette for your room. Matching runs the other way: you, your designer or your architect decide what the room is, and I make the wood and the finish work with it.

Interior designers and architects can send their finish samples and specifications the same way; working from your drawings covers the rest.

Where it fits in a commission

Finish is its own stage, after the build and before delivery, and the decisions behind it are made early, alongside the size, the shape and the wood. The five stages are on the process.

By Rob Showalter, furniture maker in Geneva, Illinois.