Patent ID: 6892105

Claim:
A method of providing a wood product with a finish at a location remote from where the finish is designed, said method comprising the steps of: (a.) designing the wood finish at a design facility; (b.) developing a finish schedule to create the wood finish, said finish schedule comprising a plurality of finishing steps utilizing a plurality of finish products; (c.) obtaining formulas for the finish products; (d.) creating at least one PDF finish information file containing the finish schedule and the formulas; (e.) providing a first wood panel composed of the same wood as the wood product; (f.) performing the finishing steps on the first wood panel in accordance with the finishing schedule; (g.) using a digital camera, creating at least one digital image of the first wood panel at the design facility; (h.) adjusting the at least one digital image to have the same color and appearance as the first wood panel; (g.) converting the at least one digital image into at least one PDF image file; (h.) merging the at least one PDF finish information file and the at least one PDF image file to form a PDF image/information file; (i.) attaching the PDF image/information file to an email and sending the email with the attached PDF image/information file from the design facility to a second location remote from the design facility; (j.) opening the email at the second location and printing the PDF image/information file to obtain a design print containing the finish schedule and the formulas and at least one printed image of the first wood panel; (k.) at the second location, providing a second wood panel composed of the same wood as the wood product; (l.) performing the finishing steps on the second wood panel in accordance with the finishing schedule in the design print, wherein at least once during or after the performance of the steps, the color and appearance of the second wood panel is compared to the color and appearance of the printed image of the first wood panel; and (m.) performing the finishing steps on the wood product in accordance with the finishing schedule in the design print, wherein at least once during or after the performance of the steps, the color and appearance of the wood product is compared to the color and appearance of the second wood panel.