Blending different kinds of woods is a common decorating mistake that a few tips can rectify. Many homes have pieces from relatives, earlier purchases and gifts that create a wide ranging set of wood types and stains in a home, and can make your house look like a thrift shop. A clear plan and organization will help a great deal to make your home look more stylish and cohesively planned.

First, identify your most important or cherished pieces. Separate them out by wood type, stain and construction style. Continue to group similar pieces going down the importance scale, and keep the groups separated out from each other. This will show you exactly what you have to work with to improve the overall look of your home.

Take each separate group and decide how well the pieces in each group work together. For example, Queen Anne pieces may not do not do well with industrial modern, even if both are using cherry wood in some elements of their design. Clear maple in your Shaker pieces may not do well with a rustic pine spool table, even if some of the wood looks about the same color.

Continue to separate out the pieces that don’t work together, leaving the primary sets that do. Each of these sets are ‘vignettes’ or sets that you can focus on to improve the look of your rooms. Now decide where each set belongs best, in what room and in what good arrangement. You may not have much choice, as living room furniture will cannot be your bedroom! However, extra pieces may look better in other rooms. So, once you have decided the most important vignettes and the best place for them, you can proceed to the next step.

Once you have decided the main pieces, take a look at your architecture and see where it clashes.Your kitchen may have cherry cabinets, but your living room has maple or light colored wood. Seeing this, you have an opportunity to consider creative transition pieces.
If there is a bar in your kitchen, consider getting bar stools made in both woods, cherry and maple. Beautiful solid wood table and chair sets are now being built in two tones of wood!

If the wood isn’t the primary cause of conflict, but the color of the finish is, your transition pieces can be stained in the best color to transition both rooms.
Additional pieces can be added to each room that reflect the wood or stain color of the room that you are trying to coordinate with. If your kitchen is in oak, but your living room is in dark walnut, you may try an oak clock with a walnut stain, and a baker’s rack in the kitchen with light oak shelves and dark walnut legs and architecture.

Coordinate other items such as flower arrangements, linens, pillows and window treatments, and be sure to remove items that really clash with your overall look. These simple tips can take your home from ‘second hand shop’ to chic, without a lot of trouble or expense.

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