https://imgur.com/a/LQepOARAs shown above, I never really liked the bright yellowish maple color of my C2, after consulting plenty artisans, I finally finished a repainting the C2 with the following process.
0. Tape masked all the parts I don't want the paint to touch
1. Sanded the speaker to remove existing stain and protective coating
2. Brushed with few layers of charcoal / carbon color milk paint
3. Sanded a few times (from 80-150-250-400 grit)
4. Brushed with charcoal distressed stain
5. Waxed to seal everything up
It now has a matte, black rusty wood look. I didn't find many painting discussions so hopefully this is helpful for those who're looking to repaint old speakers. One biggest take away here is - painting isn't hard and it's pretty fun to develop further bonding with your speakers :) - it's easy to mess up but also super easy to fix, just sand and paint again!
