YES, YOU REALLY CAN MIX AND MATCH WOOD FURNITURE TONES
Image Credit: McGee and Co Instagram
Repeat after me: Mixing wood tones is NOT A CRIME. You might need to repeat that one again to yourself. If you are anything like me, you have sort of a random mix of furniture in your home. For example, our white oak TV console is mine from college, and a dark stained coffee table we bought when we first moved in. Instead of stressing out that all the furniture pieces in our home are the exact same wood tone, I decided to smarten up and make. it. work.
Also, mixing wood tones makes your space look more layered, lived in, and adds a lot of depth. If you have the same wood tone everywhere your space can start to look really flat. Your space is meant to be filled along the way - you’ll pick up pieces here and there and they won’t match! (guess what! That’s the best part!)s
Yes mixing wood tones can be a little scary. You just have to be smart about it! You can easily pull off the mixed wood tone look with two simple hacks.
Match the hardware
I swear, as long as you match the hardware or the metal tones on the two pieces, just about any wood tones will go together. For example, our TV console has blackened bronze knobs and pulls on the cabinet and drawer faces. This compliments the blackened bronze base of our coffee table. By matching at least one element of the wood pieces together you’ll see that they start to compete less. You can also do this with paring painted wood and natural wood tones together.
click on the furniture in the image below to shop!
Choosing the right undertones
When choosing to mix wood tones you don’t have to stress if they are the same species as long as they have the same undertones. What I mean by this is as long as they are both either warmer in tone, or cooler in tone it will work. Let’s look at my living room as an example. Out TV console is a rustic white oak furniture piece that has a hand scraping and a lot of variation in the wood. This actually helps when trying to pair a different wood stain with it. You can see that the console has some warmer and darker variations in the wood. This lends itself to partnering with a walnut wood stain. The tone of the wood is also warmer and a little yellow or red at times.
Our coffee table is an oak wood top with a warm walnut or dark wood stain. Since the wood stain on this piece has a warmer undertone, it works really nicely with the warm undertones of the TV console
Pay attention if your wood tone is on the warmer or cooler side and match accordingly.
LOOKING FOR MORE INSPIRATION?
See! Super easy!! No need to stress about always having everything match 100% all the time. Don’t be afraid to take risks, and know that nothing is ever permanent. Looking for inspiration? Check out these other living rooms that mixed different tones of wood super successfully.
