WALL COLOR AND WOOD TONES

MAKING THEM ALL HAPPY

Most of us have wood tones in our home.  If not on the floor, then as furniture or kitchen cabinets.

While wood isn't considered a 'color' in your color palette, their tones do need to be considered.  Wood can have red, brown, yellow or in some cases, gray tones.  

Red toned woods, like mahogany or cherry look great with cooler wall colors - cool greens, blues and grays, and gray toned beiges.  Yellow toned woods, like oak, also do well with greens, grays and purple tones.  Dark woods can handle both cool and warm tones.  If you have a mix, a grayed down neutral may work with all the wood tones.   When in doubt, choose the wood tone you have the largest amount of, or the most dominant and find a color that makes it look beautiful.


One of my readers has a color question with lots of wood tones:

Claudine, I m so glad that I found your blog on pinterest....I have been wanting to change the colors of my walls (which are now white) the only problem that I am running into is the living room, dining room and kitchen are all open. I guess I need to find a color that will flow through all the rooms. My living room has victorian furniture in it and my table is cherry. The dining room and kitchen has light oak furniture. I have hardwood floors in two rooms which is are medium oak color and the floor in the kitchen is white ceramic tile. I relly would like to get away from the white but I just have no idea as to what color I should go with. I really hope that you can help me with this. Thank you Theresa 

Dear Theresa,
Most neutrals will go nicely with all wood colors, with the exception of some beiges.  Beige can get a little pinkish, or flesh toned and that color doesn't always look its best with a yellow toned wood, unless it is grayed down a bit.  So you have quite a range of color to choose from.  You didn't mention the color of your furnishings, so I'm going to play it safe and stay in the gray/beige range of color.  I don't know if you have blues or greens or golds, but I know that the gray/beige colors look beautiful with almost all other colors - so we will be safe in that range.
All of those wood tones you mentioned will also look lovely with grays and with beiges that have a gray undertone.  With that in mind, here are a few suggestions that have proven to be successful with most colors and wood tones.

Benjamin Moore REVERE PEWTER
Trim:  Benjamin Moore WHITE DOVE

Benjamin Moore WICKER

Benjamin Moore GRAY CASHMERE

Benjamin Moore ASHWOOD GRAY

Benjamin Moore GRAY OWL

Try a few of these on your walls.  If you paint two coats on a poster board you can try it next to your woods as well to see how they look.  As you can see from most of these photos, the wood tones look great with these wall colors.    Good luck!