Mixing Wood Tones in Home Interior Design

Interesting interior design happens when textures, colors, and variation combine in surprising yet tasteful ways. When it comes to wood, overly matching finishes and tones can read as stodgy and banal. Furthermore, most people don’t buy all of their furniture at once but collect and purge items over a number of years. So, it would help to know how to pair wood tones together inside your home.

Don’t Match

Wood tones in your home interior design don’t need to match at all. To tell the truth, when woods match the home looks bland and lacks uniqueness. However, different colors and finishes shouldn’t just collide together – there has to be continuity, as with any finishes in the home.

My general recommendation is to stain the floor as a neutral backdrop to allow for any wood stain color in the furniture. For instance, oak floors mix effortlessly with walnut, cherry, ebony, and mahogany. When selecting furniture pieces, these can also be mixed and matched, but break them up with upholstery, art, and accessories.

Wood furniture pieces should be sprinkled around the home rather than clumped together in one room. Likewise, consider the frames on wall art. If there is a lot of wood furniture already in the space, then maybe the picture frames should be painted or match a different finish in the home.

Break It Up

To harmonize woods in a room, use printed and colored fabrics to distract from varying wood tones. For a wood table on top of a wood floor, place a rug under the table and chairs so that the contrast between the woods is not as obvious.

Likewise, keep the tones of the larger pieces in the room consistent, and avoid overpopulating a room with all large dominate wood furniture. It makes it hard to add in other wood tones when confronted with a wall of antique oak, maple, cherry, etc. To counteract this, keep bookcases in one color, floors in another, and the furniture in another. Bring in a 4th wood tone and you risk overdoing it.

Get Up to Speed

In general, interior design is moving more toward being freer and less strict about everything matching. To stop things from going overboard, keep the undertones the same – cool with cool, and warm with warm. I’ve also noticed that walnut is very popular and cherry has lost its appeal.

Look to Houzz or Pinterest for design inspiration. After some time deciding what looks you like, you’ll be better equipped to rely on your own intuition and what feels good to you.

Natural wood elements help to balance the energy in your home which creates an atmoshere of peace. To talk to Tanya Campbell about mixing wood tones in your current home or in a redesign please contact us by filling out our form or call us for a consultation at 303-489-9958.