Finding Complimentary Color and Wood Tone

Wood furniture deserves a background that best compliments its tones, whether you choose to have country pine, high style mahogany, or mission style oak. Your objective however, is not what color may go with mahogany or oak, but rather what color can best compliment the finish of your fine wood furniture.

Each wood species has its own characteristics of grain pattern and color and their color can be altered by the use of stain. In order to change the color of the wood or highlight the appearance of wood, furniture manufacturers have been using varnishes and stains for thousands of years. The stains you find in home improvement centers generally carry the name of the wood species that they are similar to in color and tone. These include the most common types of fruit wood as well as pine, oak, maple, walnut, cherry, mahogany and ebony.

As wood furnishings age they acquire a rich patina which provides is surface with a depth of complexity. Newer veneers and woods often lack such refinement. However, they still display a color tone that may range from yellows, oranges, red-browns, dark browns or bluish browns.

You will focus on the dominating tones in the wood finish when you are searching for complimentary fabrics and wall covering colors for your wood furniture. For instance, do you prefer the high drama of contrasting colors or the splendor of low contrasting ensembles? The comfort and casualness of bringing various time pieces of wood furniture is perfectly acceptable today, therefore you should never worry about all your wood pieces matching or not.

The Drama of High Contrast

The drama of high contrast occurs when dark wood finishes such as, cherry, walnut or mahogany; stand strongly and sharply against any type of light color no matter where its shade may be found on the rainbow color wheel. Likewise, the bold darkness on wall coverings will stand boldly against lighter colors in wood species.

When you have a fine piece that you want to attract focus too, this type of contrast can call more attention to your furniture. However, if you have an excessive amount of dark furniture displayed in a light color room the space will seem busier than if you were to blend in your furniture. If you are partial to dark wood against light wall-coverings or perhaps light furniture against dark walls, you should arrange your furnishings in an orderly and streamlined fashion in order to eliminate the impression of crowding and bring in a more balanced appearance.

While working with medium-tone finishes and you wish to achieve a high contrast, your wall color should be light and soft. This will aid you in creating a difference in the values of the wood tones and the walls color.

Look for the prompts of wall color by using the colors featured in the finish of your furniture. For instance, you will use green as a background color to intensify and enhance the wood hues of a predominantly red color of wood.

Woods of golden-yellow are very becoming against the warmer reds, earthy greens, teals and shapes of eggplant. The yellow undertones of brown wood compliments and stands out boldly in high drama contrast with buttery color wall-covering.

The patina on antique woods provide a depth of complexity that often combines several different tones, this is why you can use them resourcefully against various colors of dark or light.

The Splendor of Low Contrast

When you pair tones tone of color that equal in their value and intensity you create a subtly rich low contrast, however this does not mean that the furniture fades away into the background.

For instance, you can create a lively balance between two tones of equal strength such as placing an ebony table or dark mahogany chest against a blue-green or deep red wall. Here the value of the color of wood equals the intensity of the wall color.

The same is true of this principle when you are working with medium tone or muted colors and medium brown wood. You create a more subtle effect since the tones and shapes are softer.

You can enhance the toasty rich notes of medium brown wood by using warm neutral colors such as mushroom, khaki and taupe. Your furniture will stand out nicely while being influenced by the quiet low contrast which produces another type of drama from that which is created with high contrast.

Color and Wood

Your preferences of color are very personal, however when you select background colors for your furniture, you will find that some colors are much better than others for enhancing the natural beauty of your wood.

One example is using the honey tones of pine is warm against a medium green compliment each other well. Medium green can bring out the yellow shade within the wood while balancing them with a cooling contrast.

A crisp clear mint green may seem a bit gaudy. However, using a pale gray-green is a most becoming low contrast color choice.

If you thrive in high contrast and can live with such a bold cold, intense bright blue can bring out the orange tones in wood; otherwise the contrast can seem a bit harsh.

The orange shades in wood can be drawn out when using pale orange or terra-cotta, however, they are so similar in their tones that the wood fades away into this background.

Although, you can use yellow to bring out the various tones of yellow and orange while enhancing overall warmth of a room, it does not enhance the beauty of the wood.

Oak Dining Tables
After finding color and wood tone for your home you should consider a beautiful and elegant American made wood furniture for your bedroom, living room or dining room.