4 Steps to Mixing Wood Tones Like an Interior Designer
Matchy-matchy is out.
Too many wooden pieces in the same tone can make a space feel.... flat, but when the wooden tones are successfully mixed and matched, your room will come alive with texture and personality. It's tricky to determine exactly which tones of wood go together, that's why below, we've listed four easy steps for blending and mixing wood tones organically.
Step 1: Determine the Dominant Wood Tone
The key to mixing wooden tones is to start with a strong foundation. Begin by identifying the dominant wood tone or other tones in the room. If you have wooden floors or cabinets, those will be the dominant tone. If not, the dominant wood tone will be the room's largest piece of furniture such as the dining set or coffee table.
The dominant tone will either be warm, cool or neutral. Warm tones resemble sunlight - think walnut, white oak, cherry and maple with an oil-based finish. Cool tones tend to look like gravel or concrete - think bleached ash and maple with a water-based finish. Neutral tones are usually one yellowy shade with no undertone, such as cane or blackwood.
After finding the dominant tone, look closely at the wood to determine its undertones. The undertones are important as these are the shades you'll be using and incorporating into your design. To do this, look for the palest tone in the wood grain. It can be helpful to step back and look at the wood from a distance. A few common undertones are red, yellow, purple and green. In the picture above, you'll notice orange undertones in the chair, pale yellow undertones in the sideboard and almost no undertone in the neutral wood flooring.
Step 3: Complement or Contrast Each Tone
When you're mixing wooden tones, try creating a complementary or contrasting space rather than working toward a matching palette. Wooden tones that almost match but aren't quite close enough can end up looking like a mistake or haphazard. A variety of either complementary or contrasting tones looks like a deliberate design choice.
To get the wood tones to complement each other, match the undertones from one piece to the dominant tones in another. For example, if you have mahogany or cherry floors with warm reddish undertones, pair them with furniture that has a warm dominant tone like a white oak bed frame.
To contrast the wood, keep things bold so that two dominant tones in similar shades will not have to compete with one another. For example, if you have light oak floors, pair them with furniture that has a dark dominant tone, like a cherry sideboard. Contrasting warm and cool dominant tones will create visual interest through the various shades and layers of wood.
For both complementary and contrasting tones, consider mixing and matching the grain size or the patterns in the wood – look at the stripes, swirls and flames. Woods with a high grain visibility give off a more rustic or casual vibe; woods with a low grain visibility have a more formal or polished aesthetic.
Balance is another important piece in the puzzle of mixing wood tones. Once you introduce a tone into the room, you'll want to disperse it throughout the space to make it look intentional. The complementary or contrasting tones don't just need to be shown off through furniture. Consider a wooden tray for the coffee table or place wooden sculpture beads in the built-ins. Set wood picture frames on a bookcase. Hang a wall mirror with a wood frame over a sideboard or console table.
It's also good to create balance by breaking up similar wood tones when you can. If your dining set is just a little too close in tone to the wood floors, roll out an area rug to define the two. Choose soft, textured pieces to balance the wood tones such as a bouclé sofa or genuine leather ottoman or pouffe.
