You ever have one of those pieces that is so hideous, done on well earned materials, that you just have to paint over it?  Yea I got me one of those.  So I stained the hell out of it and slapped a few friends on top of it.  No planing really, just went for it.  It was very liberating to just sort of do whatever I wanted.  If you recognize yourself then congrats to you.  And to me :)