I had colored many pieces of this spalted oak so I wanted to leave one natural — it hurt because I so wanted to color a project this weekend (I eventually did and will post that later). Of course there is some color if you call black a color. Any other wood I had that was the right size for the lid would have had too much grain pattern to conflict with the look of the spalting so I decided to use Sycamore and dye it black (with India ink of course) and then use the oak for the spindle to carry the look upwards. I wanted the spindle to be more delicate but it was a bit punky which is one of the characteristics of spalted wood. The whole piece is coated with lacquer.