Mixing Wood Tones & Feeling Good Doing It

So true story, about a week and a half ago, I was scrolling through one of my favorite bloggers (Chris Loves Julia) blogs and gaining inspiration from her and as I was scrolling…BAM I saw a very familiar picture on their website…look below:

You guys….that’s MY HOUSE ON ChrisLovesJulia’s blog! I’m literally dying! Like dying! They have been a huge source of inspiration for me since we started Kindred Homestead. [You can find the article they wrote HERE]. And since their article is all about how to mix wood tones, I thought I’d share some of my favorite tips for how we’ve created a seamless and bright aesthetic in our own home despite having the dark wood tones.

1. We paired a cool tone (or floor) with warm wood tones that pair well together to create contrast (i.e. contrasting the color of our wood trim with the color of our floors).

This was the biggest contrast of all. We used to have the same color wood floor as the trim and it just made the house seem sooooo dark (see the before picture below).

So when we decided to sand it all down and do something different, we did that with a very specific purpose…to lighten up the house and make the woodwork stand alone. It’s already such a work of art that with the floors being the same color as them it all just kind of blended together. But setting them apart and contrasting them created not only a brighter home but a pop in details of the woodwork.

2. Mixing wood tones that work together and not clash

I think this is people’s biggest problem…not knowing the tones of the wood they’re working with. Knowing if your woods are cool or warm is a huge advantage to knowing how “properly” mix your wood tones together. Julia references this cheat sheet that she got from Room & Board in the blogpost that I was featured in so I thought I would throw it in here too for you to see as well.

Wood naturally has cooler or warmer undertones and knowing those can help you pair different types of wood together in your home more easily. For example…Ashley from @arrowsandbow has a wide range of wood types in her home. Let’s take a look below….

SOURCE | Arrows & Bow

Here, they’ve used a bleached white oak floor and paired it with warm maple or walnut looking countertops and floating shelves. And then the dark wood hood vent over the range. Here they’ve done an excellent job combing warm and cool tones. The floor, a cool tone, is paired with those warmer tones from the countertops and cooled down again by the dark cool tones of the hood vent. Sort of like a sandwich effect! haha. In this case, the white cabinets help to soften the transition of tones by truly grounding these two contrasting tones together. Let’s look at another example…

SOURCE | Living Lifes Moments

Kari, from @livinglifesmoments has a very similar aesthetic to my own home. In fact, I pulled a lot of Inspo from her home when trying to figure out how to incorporate my large thick wood trim into my home while keeping a bright and airy feel. She uses so many beautiful warm wood tones from her floors to here table, to her dark wood trim. Like mine, she contrasted her floors from the dark wood trim to create that dramatic contrast. She like Ashley (from above) used a transitional piece…the white baseboards to soften the transition from light to dark. But then she pulled in beautiful natural blonde wood tones as well, which you can see more of in her living room photos.

3. Pick a contrasting color and feature it throughout your home

For my home, I have 3 different wood tones that I feature throughout: 1. bleached white oak, 2. old American oak trim, and blonde wood tones. Since my floors are already throughout the home and so is my trim, I try and carry pops of that blonde wood throughout to other areas of my home and accent it on the walls, or with furniture. Here are some ways I have done that…

Hanging circular wall baskets

Accent chairs

More accent chairs :)

Another piece of information I would give is, continue searching other peoples accounts via Instagram or Pinterest to gain inspiration and vision for you how can do the same in your house. Find a style that you’re drawn to and then figure out through a series of trial and elimination from your search, how you can begin mixing wood tones in your space with what you already have. Here are a few “Do’s & Don’ts of Mixing Wood Tones” that I put together for a more visual representation! Hope you enjoy!