Veneering question

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Rather than veneering, can you make up a backing frame and then gluex gain white oak strips on 2 sides and long grain on the other 2 sides. If the background is cut at an angle the surface shouldnt have to be too thick and then you can just mould it as solid. The concern would be x grain shrinkage and potential splitting
 
Is an option to paint the corners and paint on grain lines, matching the veneer? That might even be easier.
My suggestion is even more radical, extending your suggestion: use the graining technique for all of it on top of something easily worked, such as poplar. Of course, that would mean finding someone with highly developed graining skills, but they exist and nowadays frequently describe themselves as faux finishers.

John Canning, for example, may be worth a look to see what can be achieved. Slainte.
 
Soften the veneer, bag it onto the former and let it dry, if it hasn’t cracked by then you should be able to glue it down ok. On a wild grain I’d expect it to be possible (maybe not on the first take) a straight grain more difficult
 
I think we all agree that the straight portions of the project will be feasible.How about having the corners machined to shape on a CNC router and then find a talented polisher to apply stain and graining to match the rest?
 
Soften the veneer, bag it onto the former and let it dry, if it hasn’t cracked by then you should be able to glue it down ok. On a wild grain I’d expect it to be possible (maybe not on the first take) a straight grain more difficult
That is exactly how I made veneers for Mercedes cars. From the mid eighties they have stuck their veneer to a thin sheet of aluminium, about 0.7mm, and I assume press it like that to get some surprising double curvatures. Apparently the idea was that the aluminium layer prevents the veneer splintering in an accident. I made casts of the parts in body filler, then cut the veneer to shape, steamed it, and clamped it unglued to dry. It takes on the shape, but sometimes splits, so quite a few rejects. But if not split then just glue up as normal. Doing this on something the size of the OP's project would be a challenge.
 

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