Can You Mix Wood Colors in the Same Room?

Kitchen

• Dark cherry or walnut kitchen cabinets paired with a glossy oak floor helps reflect natural and electric light and prevents the kitchen from feeling too heavy and dark. Add a kitchen island of dark wood with light oak inlays on the edges or on the drawers to heighten the visual contrast of the wood colors. Oak-covered bar stools placed on one side of the kitchen island turns this kitchen space into extra seating.

Dining Room

• A light-colored wood dining room table placed on a dark mahogany floor emphasizes the dining area and makes the table the focus of the room. Add dining room chairs to the table in all different wood tones to further accent the table, which gives the dining area a multitude of textures from the different wood grains. Paint the wood window and archway trim a dazzling white to further highlight the wood tones in the dining room.

Stairs and Foyer

• Build an exposed staircase, and side it with ash, a light-colored wood. Continue the ash on the stair risers, capping them off with dark walnut treads. Add a warmer toned oak telephone table in the foyer with darker wood storage crates below. Continue the ash and walnut theme in a foyer parquet floor extending from the staircase. Render the foyer table and floor in a high-gloss finish to showcase their colors.

Bedroom

• Leave the cherry wood beams exposed in the bedroom to contrast with an oak or ash high-gloss bedroom floor. Choose a wood bed frame whose stain color is in between cherry and oak or ash. Place the bed frame's wood grain perpendicular to the floor's wood grain for visual interest. Reverse the ceiling and floor color so that the floor is cherry wood and the ceiling is oak or ash to lighten the feel of the room.