How to Mix and Match Wood Tones in a Room

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If you’ve always preferred your decor to be as perfectly curated as a shopfront display, perhaps it’s time to toss out the matchy-matchy rule book and embrace the mix-and-match approach. A mix of wood grains, patterns and tones can lend your decor a characterful spirit and a genuine sense of style. Yet, marrying various woods in a room can often prove to be a challenge. If you’ve been contemplating mixing and matching wood tones in your home, but have been apprehensive about how to get started, consider these tips your guiding light.

Choose similar undertones
Woods are like seasons: some are warm and golden (as shown in this home by Architecture Discipline), while others are crisp and cool. Opting for similar undertones across your pieces can help conjure a sense of cohesion within your room and keep it from looking lopsided. For example, if your room is dominated by warm wood tones like walnut, cherry and rosewood, consider choosing additional pieces in a similar warm palette. Likewise, if your wood scheme is biased towards cooler tones, match it with complementary cool wood grains.

Warm undertones usually appear in red, orange or yellow shades, while cool undertones give off a greyish hue.

Beige, a medium-warm colour temperature injected into this space by Artistic Spaces, is associated with a neutral undertone. Neutral colour temperatures work equally well with woods on both sides of the spectrum – warm or cool – as well as with other neutral finishes.

Tip: Struggling to determine a wood undertone? Try finding the lightest hue in the grain. Alternatively, walk away across the room and study the piece as a whole: it’s likely you’ll perceive it as a single colour.

Designate a ruling tone
A sea of similar tones can dissolve into nothingness and be lost on the eye. Tackle the tedium by making one wood tone your room’s crowning glory, as demonstrated by the floor and add complementary darker or lighter tones around it. If you’re unsure of how to decide this, go by your largest surface – the floor, the sofa frame or the centre table, perhaps.

If all your wood finishes are of equal surface area, like the floor and ceiling in this balcony  it makes sense to spread your dominant tone across two, three or even four ruling accents.

These pieces don’t all have to sport an identical tone or grain (in fact, the more variety, the better). As long as they’re within the same colour family – all dark, all light, or a mix of neutral and dark, or neutral and light – you can comfortably establish your reigning tone.

Unify with a theme
Colour temperature, as discussed earlier, is an unfailing unifying tool for wood pieces. However, you should also be mindful of other important elements, such as design, shape and period. A mid-century modern decor scheme, for example, can gain character from wood pieces in a similar style. Similarly, a room dominated by sinewy furniture can profit from additional pieces with curvy cuts.

Bring in colour with accents
Worried about disparate wood tones and grains drowning out your space? Buoy them with one or two central accent colours. Get throw pillows, lamps, rugs and tchotchkes in a single colour scheme to introduce a consistency that counterbalances the diversity of your wood.

Let your grains rule
When it comes to uniting various wood grains into a cohesive whole, try choosing pieces with different grain patterns and sizes to create an eclectic visual appeal.

The grain pattern pertains to the stripes, circles or flecks on the wood, while the grain size speaks of the scale of that pattern. As long as you stay within the same colour family, consider it safe to experiment with your grains.

Balance the tonality of your room
When you’re using several finishes in a room, placement is key. Be careful to space out similar tones evenly across your room. For instance, dark tones huddled together at one end of your room can upset the visual balance.

Introduce non-wood finishes
If an abundance of wood is pulling your room down, break up the monotony with non-wood finishes. Textured veneers and laminates, metals, and paint are great for your surfaces and can serve as an antidote to an overly woody look.

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