I say play with the paint and see what you feel comfortable doing. Layering paint and use dry-brushing. Paint the dark color first, and then layer light dry brush coats to build up to the color you want. Remember wood is not perfect, so the bet brushing can give you a good wood imperfect look. You can do some sponging of color but feather that out with a soft brush so it doesn’t look like sponging. Nothing looks more amateurish than doing painting. If you want some grain, during the process you can take a thin brush and add some wood grain patterning in, then soften that with the layering of paint on top. But I sat just go for it. Play as you apply the paint and see what works best for you. There is no risk here as you can either like it or you can easily just start painting over it.