I’ve grained pocket doors to match old wood paneling, and I’ve grained paneling to match an old oak pocket door. The art of wood graining is as old as wood-or at least as old as paint.
I’ve seen it in the old castles of the Loire Valley in France and it is apparently at least a few thousand years older than those. There are several steps to nice graining. If you look closely at a piece of finished wood you often see that what looks like a simple palette of colors at first is really very layered and complex.
Nature has many, many substances to work with and they all reflect light in their own way. They combine like an ensemble combines its instruments.